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Asia's Tech News for the WorldTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:23:01 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Interview: OMG says they can beat SSB, and Cool misses Faker at Worldshttps://www.techinasia.com/interview-omg-says-they-can-beat-ssb-and-cool-misses-faker-at-worlds/
https://www.techinasia.com/interview-omg-says-they-can-beat-ssb-and-cool-misses-faker-at-worlds/#commentsTue, 23 Sep 2014 16:13:16 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=174498This Thursday, the second half of the League of LegendsSeason 4 World Championship group stages will kick off in Singapore. Chinese teams Edward Gaming and Star Horn Royal Club have already punched their tickets to the quarterfinals, and OMG is looking to make sure that all three of China’s teams make it through groups by beating out the competition in Group C this week.

As they prepare for that battle, Chinese gaming site Duowan caught up with the team for an interview. The players, needless to say, were a bit busy, so team leader TT took the lead in answering most of the questions.

Q: OMG is in Singapore for the group stages, and groups A and B have concluded. Did OMG pay attention to any of the performances in groups A and B, especially those of Edward Gaming and Star Horn Royal Club? Edward Gaming struggled, and couldn’t seem to resist against Samsung White. How do you feel about this? Are the Koreans just unbeatable?

TT: The players and coaches all watched the A and B group stages. We also all discussed the results together; since our group matches weren’t until later it was a good opportunity to look closely at the data from A and B and to analyze a few things. We did watch the matches between Samsung White and Edward Gaming, and at the moment I have to admit that the gap between China and Korea is quite large. But that doesn’t mean Korean teams are totally unbeatable. We’ll face Samsung Blue in the group stages on the 25th, and we’ve got some special plans, so I think we’ve got a definite chance to take the game. As far as the ultimate result of this tournament, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Doing the homework on your opponents is important. Have you done any focused research on how to beat your group C opponents? Which ones are you placing the most importance on?

TT: We’ve looked carefully at every team in group C. We’ve looked for the weak spots in each of the different teams, and we’ll use different tactics depending on the opponent. In terms of the matches against Samsung Blue, we’ll of course have to play our absolute hardest, to the point that it’s possible we’ll bring out some of our ‘big guns’ [by this I think he means new/surprising picks or tactics -Ed.]. Against Samsung Blue you’ve got to put everything into going for the win. After all, they’re the first place team in Korea, and we want to win a match to show the strength of Chinese teams.

How do you plan to train in Singapore? Are you playing on the Garena servers or doing something else?

TT: Riot has given us a place to train backstage, so we go there to train every morning until 12:00 at night when the room closes. As for who we’re scrimming, it’s other teams in the tournament, like Europe’s Alliance and America’s Cloud 9.

I want to ask Cool: this year your old opponent Faker isn’t here, but you’ve got to face up against this season’s more fearsome Dade, how do you rate him? Right now, do you think OMG can beat Samsung Blue?

Cool: First of all, I’m very sad that Faker couldn’t be in the finals, it makes the competition a little less exciting. I haven’t played Dade much, but in my opinion Korea’s mid laners aren’t that different [from each other in terms of skill], so often you just have to see how they perform on the stage that day. Finally, currently I think that if everyone is in the right mindset and plays their role and we’re united, then I definitely believe that we have a chance to beat Samsung Blue.

Dada77, OMG’s support role has seen a lot of changes, and ultimately you’ve been chosen as San’s bot lane partner. After your training, how are you feeling about that partnership?

Dada77: We’re still getting used to it, because in terms of style there’s a big difference. The previous style was always passive, not pressuring, being afraid of getting caught by the enemy jungler. But now we dare to pressure, to trade, and to not fear the jungler. Recently my cooperation with San has gotten a lot better, so basically we’re not scared of any bot lane.

Strong words. Can OMG back them up? We’ll have to wait until Thursday to find out.

Related:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/interview-omg-says-they-can-beat-ssb-and-cool-misses-faker-at-worlds/feed/0More gaming startups need to work together. Malaysia’s 1337 Accelerator is why.https://www.techinasia.com/more-gaming-startups-need-to-work-together-malaysias-1337-accelerator-is-why/
https://www.techinasia.com/more-gaming-startups-need-to-work-together-malaysias-1337-accelerator-is-why/#commentsThu, 28 Aug 2014 09:43:56 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=172219People in Asia’s gaming industry don’t work together. It could be that because the industry is so small, everyone’s afraid of losing out to the competition. There simply isn’t enough of the pie for everyone to grab a bite. Doors remain closed even within the gaming startup communities. While competition is great, and keeps people hungry for more, does that benefit really outweigh what you get from sharing, and learning, from others?

Bikesh Lakhmichand, co-founder of Malaysia’s 1337 Accelerator, the first ever in the country, doesn’t think so.

Lakhmichand in the 1337 Hub!

The 1337 Accelerator grew out of iTrain, a company he set up with co-founder Eric Ku that provides training in all sorts of verticals to folk from all sorts of companies. Following two intense years of running mobile app development training, Lakhmichand realized that his team hadn’t just acquired domain expertise in every single vertical it had trained in. Having worked so closely with companies big and small, iTrain was also well-placed to mentor and advise industry newcomers anywhere.

The idea was to give back, give these [newbies] the connections and know-hows of overcoming the brick walls we used to go up against, and help them accelerate.

While the 1337 Accelerator is not a game-specific one, its first batch of graduates all produced gaming properties. This was the result of a pilot program Lakhmichand pitched to the Malaysian government over a year ago. iTrain had always been looking at the gaming sector when it came to getting people trained for that specific skillset, since coding native apps for Android and iOS was too slow.

When an opportunity to work with Unity came up, Lakhmichand proposed his program: get participants to go through an intense five-day crash course, and have them build a prototype in 30 days, all while being mentored by industry veterans. It was approved.

Snapshot of the 1337 Hub at Pantai Hill Park. It moved here from Cyberjaya.

A call was put out to developers and designers to pitch their ideas. Approximately 20 participants were paired up, designer to developer, and they were taught to build games from scratch. The Malaysian government loved the end result, and even gave the participating teams seed funding. Lakhmichand and his team, on the other hand, saw a vertical that they had both the right skillsets and mentors for, and the first batch of 1337 Accelerator participants was born.

No games actually finished their development process while in the accelerator. “You can’t accelerate games in three months,” Lakhmichand said, “but you can come up with something.”

If you aim for three months, chances are you get it at nine months. If you aim for nine months, no way in hell you are going to get it in nine months.

Some of the first batch’s participants took a little longer to finish their games; some received extra funding for an extension of their ideas. But Lakhmichand saw no reason to pause the program. Instead, 1337 took on an entire new batch of startups, and started to look at consumer tech.

Today, the 1337 Accelerator has seen 16 teams graduate from its program. Originally meant to get profitable and self-sustainable after five years, it is way ahead of itself. Lakhmichand is confident that 1337 can already run on its own.

From the next intake on, the accelerator will be privately funded. While it takes no money from participants in the program, it does have a 30 percent revenue share of the games it helped push out, and eight percent equity from its present consumer tech batch. You can imagine just how successful its graduates must be for it to already be sustainable.

While the focus will still be on Malaysian companies moving forward—Lakhmichand is such a big part of the country’s startup scene that he can’t pull out—1337 also wants to look at Southeast Asian companies.

Lakhmichand expects to set up hubs across the region by the end of the year. In the meantime, 1337 is running pre-accelerator workshops across Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, India, and even Korea. These five-day programs, known as Alpha Startups, will help 1337 pick and choose from the vast pool of hungry entrepreneurs before it commits to placing them in an accelerator program. Lakhmichand also talked about creating accelerators in at least two of the cities he named.

We could curate startups all across Asia, mix them up, and have them go to different places.

He shared an ideal scenario: a startup begins in Malaysia, finds out its idea could work in Indonesia, shifts there to raise funds, then heads over to Singapore for the final round of funding. “We want to be able to create that,” he said.

The 1337 Accelerator x Games in Asia meetup in June 2014.

While the 1337 Accelerator is still mentoring its consumer tech batch, the success of its first gaming batch has foreshadowed how its mentees will do. Stellar creations like Dreamcatcher, Agent RX, Tell No One, and Chinese Zombie Wars: Demon Arise have caught international attention, while 1337 graduate Spacepup Entertainment has partnered with the country’s Animonsta Studios to bring the hit children’s animated series Boboiboy to life via the game Boboboi World.

If that isn’t enough proof that Asia’s gaming startups should start working more closely together, then I don’t know what is!

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/more-gaming-startups-need-to-work-together-malaysias-1337-accelerator-is-why/feed/1Fortumo weighs in on how mobile game developers can monetize in emerging markets like Indiahttps://www.techinasia.com/fortumo-weighs-in-on-how-mobile-game-developers-can-monetize-in-emerging-markets-like-india/
https://www.techinasia.com/fortumo-weighs-in-on-how-mobile-game-developers-can-monetize-in-emerging-markets-like-india/#commentsWed, 27 Aug 2014 13:00:39 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=172158Much has been said about India‘s potential for mobile game developers. Thanks to a large base of smartphone owners and an audience hungry for content, it seems like it is a market ripe for the taking. That is, until developers hit the biggest stumbling block for success in the region: a vast majority of consumers don’t have or prefer not to use a credit card.

But that hasn’t stopped Fortumo. The company allows consumers to make in-app purchases (IAP) without the need for a credit card. Payments are instead charged to their mobile operator bill. We spoke to Mattias Liivak, head of marketing and PR, and Sanjay Sinha, country manager for India at Fortumo, to find out what’s needed for developers to succeed in markets that are adverse to spending.

Small price, large volume

According to Sinha, there’s user resistance when it comes to apps that sport a free-to-use component along with a payment option. He claims that customizing content for India requires something different altogether.

Can we implement solutions that we have used in other markets for India? The answer is no. That’s why we do a lot of customisations specific to Indian markets. Western price points don’t work here. The target is small price points and large volumes. It’s a key strategy which we think can work in India.

For Sinha, it’s crucial to harness the large volumes in the market. He believes that thanks to the country’s large base of mobile users, the payout will be huge even if just a small percentage pays.

There’s a large number of transactions at the price point between INR 10 to 20 ($0.17 to $0.34). The sub-INR 50 ($0.83) price point is very good for Indian market to get large volumes. It’s indicative that the message for developers is small ticket size, large volume.

No commitments

Services like Fortumo usually lose out on a large chunk of small and independent developers thanks to harsh business terms. But Fortumo’s focus on ease of use and scalability makes it an attractive proposition. Liivak shared that developers can sign up with the service, integrate Fortumo’s software development kit (SDK), and make an app live all within a day. Fortumo also offers global access to carrier billing and a self-service setup for quick deployment.

With over 100,000 thousand developers signed up, Fortumo’s offerings are available in 35 languages. Developer guidance in terms of case studies and assistance in what price points to set are given as well. And this isn’t all. While other similar services usually require developers to make a commitment in terms of sales generated, this is not the case for Fortumo.

There is no minimum monetary requirements or commercial expectations we have of developers.

How much of a difference does this make to developers?

While Liivak and Sinha could not comment on the split between Fortumo’s carrier billing solution versus credit cards, a recent newsletter from Microsoft suggests that transaction volumes have increased six times over after deploying carrier billing.

But they did state that this is heavily dependent on the audience demographics targeted by developers. So if a game is targeted to audiences in emerging markets, it would naturally see greater revenue generated via carrier billing versus a game that’s for developed markets such as the US. It helps that Fortumo co-operates with 30 different region-specific app stores. These include stores for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like ZTE, independent storefronts like Mobango, and carrier app stores like Telenor in Pakistan.

Cracking emerging markets open with Microsoft

Fortumo is also trying to build the Windows phone ecosystem in addition to developer guidance, billing solutions, and distribution. The company is giving an upfront advance to developers integrating Windows phone. This amount varies between $1,000 and $25,000 depending on the downloads their apps have. Though Windows phone is barely visible in most Asian markets, it has managed to do decently in India. For Sinha, pushing the Windows phone ecosystem makes sense.

The platform is doing very well in emerging markets. It goes well with our core proposition to developers that carrier billing helps you earn more money in markets with low credit card penetration.

The success of this move is debatable given how other emerging markets have taken to the Windows phone. Nonetheless, Liivak and Sinha claim that developers are showing interest, and a second campaign will be announced in mid September.

A trade-off for volumes over revenue?

Developers targeting India with Fortumo stand to gain 40 to 45 percent in revenue share depending on the carrier involved. This is a definite loss when you look at the 70 percent revenue share that could be gained via Google Play and Windows phone without carrier billing. However, the advantage is access to users in emerging markets, where the mentality towards content vastly differs from those in developed territories. It’s a trade-off between receiving a higher profit margin per user, and reaching a wider audience who can’t monetize through credit card.

It’s something that seems to have resonated with game developers here in India. Games2win, Dumadu, and Gamiana are just some of the local developers that have tied up with Fortumo. We were also told more developers are being added at a steady rate. For these studios, the volumes outweigh the perceived losses.

Whether Fortumo will disrupt the traditional business model for mobile games in Asia remains to be seen, but is an interesting proposition nonetheless. We’re looking forward to see more from it.

More developer news:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/fortumo-weighs-in-on-how-mobile-game-developers-can-monetize-in-emerging-markets-like-india/feed/0“We have to get the business model right.” Playstation India on indies, Vita, and PSNhttps://www.techinasia.com/we-have-to-get-the-business-model-right-playstation-india-on-indies-vita-and-psn/
https://www.techinasia.com/we-have-to-get-the-business-model-right-playstation-india-on-indies-vita-and-psn/#commentsTue, 26 Aug 2014 09:20:28 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=172054In the second part of our interview with Playstation India chief Atindriya Bose, we touch upon Sony‘s handheld conundrums, the country’s potential on digital, and the company’s plans for local indie developers.

Advice for Indian indie developers

Considering that Sony is seen as something of a champion of indie developers, it was only natural to ask Bose what plans the company has for India. Though it would take a while before local development programs are announced, he suggests that budding indie developers should register with Sony.

In the past we have worked pretty successfully with developers from India. Even in the global indie fraternity we’ve seen Indians present. We look at India as a hotbed for development. We have to get the business model right. The PS4 is pretty open but they have to take the initiative and register. That is something that we haven’t seen yet.

In his opinion, the reason for the lack of Indian indies on Playstation platforms is entirely down to business reasons.

From my analysis sitting here, the first thing everyone looks at is the domestic market. And if you look at it you look at mobile platform. That’s the easier one. If someone is ready to jump into the world market which I think is a huge opportunity for many developers here to come up with world quality games and make world quality sales.

The Vita could be doing better (but it’s not)

On the topic of indies, the PS Vita has been positioned as the poster child for all things indie in Western markets. Thanks to this, it’s seen some success in Europe and the US. Here in India however, it’s not done too well. Part of it is due the price which puts it on par with the Playstation 3 (PS3). According to Bose, customers are comparing both the Vita and PS3 before deciding what to buy.

In developed markets there are a substantial number of multi console owners. Here, except for the core, a lot are making a choice between the Vita and the PS3. Parents prefer PS3 connected to the TV. Vita has a substantial price point compared to the PSP. According to research there’s a choice between the PS3 and Vita and the choice is a no-brainer.

Nonetheless, he’s planning to relaunch the Vita here with the arrival of the slim version that will be bundled with God of War Collection. It will be interesting to see if the Vita takes off given the popularity of the God of War series in the country. Even so, Bose acknowledges it’s a tough task.

Has it taken the place of the PSP? No it hasn’t. It’s a big gap. How much we can do with the Vita will have to be seen.

The Playstation store for India is larger than any other in the country

With a lot of indie games having digital as the sole point of distribution, there’s uptake in India as well. In spite of the connectivity issues faced in the country, Bose is optimistic. He claims that the Playstation store is larger than any single game store in the country and that Indians are taking up digital in a large way.

India is finding its way of using it. Full games are being downloaded despite of bandwidth constraints. People are also finding their way of downloading mid-ranged, budget titles as well as indie games which is very encouraging.

It’s promising, as another hurdle faced by customers is the lack of prepaid cards that other markets have in abundance. And while it’s something Bose has been considering, the taxation structure for such items are unclear. Until this is rectified, customers will have to look at other options. Nonetheless, he’s pretty upbeat on the local market, and he believes the transition from mobile to console is a possibility.

There are more vibrant gamers today. There are more mobile gamers at the top-end and want to move into console gaming. It’s not like what it was when we had to ponder if people understood what consoles are. This vibrancy will translate into local ecosystem, retail, and developers.

More India news:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/we-have-to-get-the-business-model-right-playstation-india-on-indies-vita-and-psn/feed/0"It’s been a fantastic start”: an interview with Playstation Indiahttps://www.techinasia.com/its-been-a-fantastic-start-an-interview-with-playstation-india/
https://www.techinasia.com/its-been-a-fantastic-start-an-interview-with-playstation-india/#commentsMon, 25 Aug 2014 13:30:18 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=172014The Playstation 4 (PS4) has taken the world by storm. But what opportunities do Sony’s platforms have in India? We talk to Sony Computer Entertainment’s country manager for India, Atindriya Bose, to find out more.

The PS4 is exceeding expectations

India is not usually a day-one market when it comes to next-generation consoles. As someone who saw the Playstation 2 (PS2) sales take off on advertising the Playstation 3 (PS3), Bose knows that. However this industry veteran sees things playing out differently this time around.

In India, next-gen consoles grow much later in the life-cycle. That’s not the case with the PS4. If I look at this financial year’s numbers and where we’re going to finish off, it’s perhaps in line with the third or fourth year numbers of the PS3. If I compare it to the PS3’s annual sales numbers, it’s around 70 percent of that. It’s been a fantastic start.

Though Bose could not comment on the exact numbers, a previous interview he did pegs the number at an even 50,000 for the PS3 in three years. While it’s not in the millions as in other markets, it is promising. Bose attributes this growth to the global takeoff of next-gen consoles and a changing consumer mindset, along with products that are priced in the same range as the PS4.

India has a substantial number of gamers who are ready to convert and become early adopters of next-gen consoles. Granted that some might find the INR 40,000 ($660) price point steep, but before, the PS3 was the only product in that price range. Now there are a lot of them.

Games are doing equally well

However, hardware sales alone do not make for a successful console. Bose claims that strong software helps, the attach rate (the number of games sold per console) is high in India.

For the initial launch games, it’s 50 to 55 percent. The good games are 40 to 45 percent. It’s a pretty buoyant status. And now since we can track via IP, there’s also a substantial amount that’s happening via grey markets and people bringing in consoles from other countries via hand carry.

It’s no surprise that the grey market quantity for the PS4 is on the higher side. The PS4 launched in India in January, but after the initial shipment of around 4,500 to 5,000 units, consumers could not find a single official unit at retail until May. This was due to the Indian government’s new regulations that demanded video game consoles be certified before being put up for sale in the country.

Does the lack of cheaper hardware hurt Sony?

At INR 40,000 (around $660) for the PS4 and INR 16,990 (around $280) for the 12GB PS3, Sony isn’t exactly playing to the mainstream Indian consumer who wants his fix at a lower cost. With the PS2 being discontinued and the Playstation Portable (PSP) on its last legs in the country, Bose admits that the lack of a cheaper console does hurt.

In terms of the product category, [the PS2 and PSP] were really helpful when the gaming category was completely being created by consoles. If I look at mobile, it’s taken this space. It helps widening the base.

Although Sony loses out on volumes, Bose says it’s doing just fine. He explains that even without mass-level pricing, the value generated on the PS3 and PS4 has overtaken the total sales of last year. Again, he attributes this to changing consumer patterns:

We started in this industry in a year when entry level meant sub-seven K. Now you’re saying sub-ten K. But people are ready to trade up for a better experience within the range of INR 10,000 to 20,000. This is where the PS3 has seen decent sales above our budgeted numbers.

No PS3 price drop

While Bose sees no problem with the PS3 and PS4 hardware pricing, retailers have been frothing for lower-priced consoles. It’s been a hard transition from driving volumes with the PS2 and PSP to increasing customer spending, which has become a pain point. Sadly for them, the PS3 price in the country will remain the same:

If I look at the global business plan, I don’t think we’ll see a price drop. Dropping price has worked with a limited success. Sometimes you have to work with a value-driven approach rather than price.

It’s debatable if it’s the right way forward. With the PS2 narrowly missing a million units sold in India thanks to its discontinuation last year, whether Sony sees similar success with the PS3 remains to be seen.

How does Sony plan to approach the market given Microsoft’s exclusivity to Amazon? What of local development efforts? All this and more in the subsequent parts of our interview with Sony’s head honcho later this week.

More India news:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/its-been-a-fantastic-start-an-interview-with-playstation-india/feed/0Microsoft thinks it can sell more Xbox Ones by going exclusive with Amazon Indiahttps://www.techinasia.com/microsoft-thinks-it-can-sell-more-xbox-ones-by-going-exclusive-with-amazon-india/
https://www.techinasia.com/microsoft-thinks-it-can-sell-more-xbox-ones-by-going-exclusive-with-amazon-india/#commentsTue, 19 Aug 2014 13:00:17 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=171577In the second part of our interview with Xbox India head Anshu Mor, he sounds off on how Microsoft manages its retail partners, why the Xbox One is poised for success, and of course, Sony.

Retailers rage

Seeing Xbox 360 games at retail will be a thing of the past. Xbox One games won’t be present either thanks to console exclusivity to Amazon.

In a country where credit and debit card penetration isn’t the greatest, and every e-commerce portal makes their revenues through cash-on-delivery transactions, it’s a big gamble to alienate the hordes of offline merchants that populate the country’s retail space. But Mor believes that this is not a problem:

Microsoft has a much larger partnership with offline retail. Xbox was just one part of it. And we had those discussions with our partners. We were very careful in making sure they understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. So the news was not really a surprise. It was disappointing for them not to be a part of this. A lot of them who we’ve spoken face to face are aware of the intent and what we intend to do. They understood what we were doing and they were supportive of the concept we had in place after understanding it.

If this is the right model or not is the crux of the debate. A lot of retailers are extremely irate with this state of affairs. The comments below are from a few I spoke to who asked to remain anonymous:

“Mor might believe that this is a step in the right direction, but our business was to grow by 20 to 25 percent on the back of the Xbox One launch alone. Thanks to this move, we’ll probably have to shut down some of our outlets before the year is up.”

“How can I import this to serve my customers? A lot of them still prefer buying in cash and in person. I’ll have to look at other arrangements.”

“We got the news a day prior to the announcement. We’ve asked Microsoft to please take their demo Xbox 360 units away, unless they’re willing to pay for their presence in our stores. They haven’t replied yet.”

“I guess we’ll have to support Sony. They win this generation by default.”

The ire is valid. Mor revealed that the Xbox One isn’t the only thing exclusive to Amazon. First-party games, accessories and even the the Xbox 360 (from next month) will be available from Amazon exclusively.

Some of retailers have even decided to take drastic measures, trying to invoke India’s laws on monopolies and restrictive trade practises also known as the MRTP act. I don’t think this approach is likely to work, given that smartphone companies have been doling out exclusives to e-railers here for awhile now. But I’ve contacted Microsoft and Amazon for comment on the matter; I have not yet received a reply.

The Xbox is 10 percent and declining

An Xbox One launch event in New Zealand. It’s unlikely that India would have anything remotely close to this.

Knowing how bureaucratic and drawn-out the legal process is here, many retailers feel it’s not worth the bother. For them, Microsoft’s consoles and game sales never amount to more than ten percent of their bottom-line. It’s the country’s worst kept gaming secret. In spite of having a large audience consuming content that’s more in-line with the West, the Xbox 360’s performance at retail was dismal at best.

According to those in the distribution network, part of it had to do with the erstwhile leadership’s purported lack of understanding of the market. Marketing funds and launch quantities on the Xbox 360 were calculated based on the assumption of a sell-through of 100,000 units in three months. This was defined using the country’s billion plus population being the major factor. The high price coupled with ample, cheaper availability through parallel channels ensured it never came to fruition.

This time around, with different leadership, Mor thinks it’s time to turn the tide:

It’s about market creation. This isn’t about fighting with our competitor over one customer and saying “we got market share.” If you want to do something big in this country you have to create a market and that can happen if you make a bold move.

Sony will dominate

Though Mor has his launch plans chalked out, the fact of the matter is, Microsoft stands to lose out on having a presence in every game store in the country. This means that customers walking into a store will see games and hardware from Sony and PC platforms. It’s a huge loss by any account. But Mor is unperturbed:

We understand that the potential of this market is much larger than what is played out right now. We believe that even though we’re not in certain stores, we can address a potential that’s much higher than it is today. I don’t see this as a loss of opportunity or sales, we’ll be continuing to drive experiences and sales. Playing this at the scale at which it is in this country, we think we can do it larger.

He further defends his stance by saying that the company could have rolled out the launch in a normal fashion but “the scale of operations and intent we wanted to drive would not have been possible had we not gone exclusive.”

Elusively exclusive

Details of the deal between Amazon and Microsoft are not widely known at the moment. Mor states that the intent is a “long-term relationship.”

Nonetheless, those close to the matter say it’s a one year exclusivity deal. If so, that would mean Amazon committed to an extremely large number of consoles to sell.

An industry veteran I spoke to assured me that after hitting 300 orders or so in the first 10 days of announcing the pre-order, sales will go flat. It may well be true, since Amazon has extended the pre-order offer of INR 10,000 (approx $163) worth of freebies, though they are citing an “overwhelming response” as the reason.

Ignoring the bulk of India’s retailers is risky. It seems to be a trade-off between greater reach, and obtaining more data and maximising the lifetime value of each customer. Whether this strategy works in the long-term is yet to be seen. Mor, however, is confident:

It’s a big call. Coming out of offline retail is not a small decision. It’s been very well thought through and we’re extremely confident. Amazon is extremely confident. We believe we’ll make a difference now.

More Xbox One news:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/microsoft-thinks-it-can-sell-more-xbox-ones-by-going-exclusive-with-amazon-india/feed/0“We don’t do small experimental games. Only Flappy Bird can do that and get away with it.” An interview with 99gameshttps://www.techinasia.com/we-dont-do-small-experimental-games-only-flappy-bird-can-do-that-and-get-away-with-it-an-interview-with-99games/
https://www.techinasia.com/we-dont-do-small-experimental-games-only-flappy-bird-can-do-that-and-get-away-with-it-an-interview-with-99games/#commentsThu, 14 Aug 2014 10:30:12 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=17114299games is a lot of things. For one, it’s a fully owned subsidiary of Robosoft, one of India‘s oldest, if not the absolute oldest, gaming companies. It was established following its parent company’s early success on iOS. While the focus is on pushing out top quality original intellectual property (IP), 99games has seen early critical and commercial acclaim with its games based on the Bollywood film, Dhoom:3.

Its first game in the series, Dhoom:3 The Game, not only won the second best arcade and action game at the Bestappever Awards, but garnered over 12 million downloads too. The sequel, Dhoom:3 Jet Speed, saw over a million downloads in 25 days.

I spoke to CEO Rohith Bhat on the early days of smartphone development, what makes 99games tick, what it’s up to next, and where the industry is headed.

Why mobile?

Prior to founding 99games, Bhat’s efforts were squarely Mac-focused. His company, Robosoft, is known for its Mac ports of Bioshock, Tomb Raider, and TOCA Race Driver. It is one of the rare studios with an extensive portfolio on Apple’s desktop hardware. This had its advantages:

We got access to the pre-release SDK (software development kit) of the first iPhone from Apple because we were one of their close partners. When the App Store launched, out of 200 hundred products on the store, five were from Robosoft.

For Bhat, mobile was the logical extension given that his team was steeped in technical and gaming know-how. The fact that there were similarities between iOS and Mac development made things easier.

But the attention to mobile wasn’t always clear-cut. He tells us of the company’s attempts on Nintendo portables:

We were desperate to get onto the Nintendo DS. We chased Nintendo for eight to nine months and we could not get into the program. The whole App Store phenomenon came around and the entire process was democratised. Plus, we were getting 70 percent revenue, that was unheard of at the time.

Original IP versus Bollywood

From the outset, the 99games has been making games for a global audience. It tasted early success with its word game Wordsworth. At launch, it was one of the 15 most downloaded apps on the US and UK App Stores and the number one word game on iOS in both countries.

In fact, it’s betting big on its next release, Star Chef. The game is currently available on the Australian and UK App Stores as a soft launch, to gauge user response before it launches properly worldwide. Bhat describes it as a mix of Hay Day and Chefville. He hopes that it will redefine the cooking and restaurant game experience on mobile, the way Hay Day redefined the farming subgenre. With 760 five-star ratings out of a total of 1089 on the UK App Store, he’s confident of its success.

A screenshot from Dhoom:3 Jet Speed the company’s latest game based on licensed IP.

But does this mean Bhat is turning his back on making games based on movies? Not quite. The way forward for 99games, he says, lies in both original and existing IP. He explains that the earlier work on Mac ports opened the door to a lucrative deal with Yash Raj Films, the makers of the Dhoom movies. For him, it was the thrill of the challenge:

We’ve always made games for a global audience. So we thought, let us try our hand at making games for India as well. Dhoom seemed like a good franchise to start with. It fits very well in the action-adventure genre. The game was all about bikes and we know there would be an instant connect here. Indian gaming was all about putting out not-so perfect work. Movie gaming was always considered as something to promote a movie. With Dhoom we did not want it to be that way. We wanted the game to come out early.

The manner in which it went about doing this was extremely unconventional. Instead of traditionally releasing on the iPhone and iPad first, as is the case with most developers, 99games ensured Windows Phone got it before iOS and Android. This was backed up by an interesting marketing stunt. He explained:

When we did Dhoom: 3, we released it on Windows Phone first. And it was done two months in advance to the movie. Usually games based on movies get released 15 days in advance. We went to over a 100 colleges across the country to showcase the game. Within 20 to 25 days we hit a million downloads. We were Microsoft’s first million download game in India. That created an expectation for other platform owners and it was evident. When we launched on Android, we had 395,000 downloads on the first day. It’s an unheard of number in this country.

Big in China

This isn’t all. The sequel, Dhoom: 3 Jet Speed ended up doing quite well in China. This is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, there isn’t a huge base of Indians compared to say, the United Arab Emirates, or the US. Secondly, the game was not culturally localized. However it was the eighth most downloaded game on the Chinese App Store at launch.

Bhat claims this was due to the movie having released in over 2000 theaters in the country, which had a trickle-down effect. “One of the good things about the movie-related IP is that it really helps in discovery,” he says.

Let’s talk about money

While it’s all fine to tout store rankings and download figures, the question is how a developer makes money. The premium model, according to 99games, is dead. All its forthcoming titles will be free-to-play. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. With only 12 to 13 percent of revenues coming through in-app purchases, the bulk of the business is dependent on ad revenue which is in turn dependent on download numbers and retention rates. Getting customers to spend money is another thing altogether:

We see a lot of indie developers coming up these days and putting games out for mobile. The biggest challenge is getting users to pay. That’s been disproved by Teenpatti by Octro. There’s a small subset who will pay. And these are who we have to target. We have to figure out a frictionless payment in India then games like Dhoom can monetize extremely well. We need to be creative in getting money out of our audiences as smartphone penetration increases.

The company he refers to, Octro, had made headlines for obtaining Series A funding of $15 million earlier this year from Sequoia Capital. Raising funds is something Bhat is not adverse to. Last year the company was in the news for a $3.7 million investment from Kalaari Capital. While there have been rumors of an IPO, Bhat claims that’s not something it’s looking to do in the near future. But he’s not ruled out seeking additional funding.

Unique challenges

While most studios face the problem of talent acquisition or achieving the required scale, Bhat’s concerns are of a different nature. A strong core team replete with industry veterans allows him to focus on other issues. He’s always trying new methods to obtain higher visibility and get new users:

The challenge keeps changing every year. Earlier it was how to get featured by Apple. As the industry evolves you need to keep in touch with all the tool-chain providers as well. We need to figure out what is the best way for user acquisition, what are the best growth hack techniques to use, and what’s the best time to launch a game among other things.The key is to maintain momentum and not lose it.

Being in the business as long as Bhat always brings some perspective. He states that 99games’ success is due to following a few simple rules:

We don’t do small experimental games. They’re tough to discover on the App Store. Only Flappy Bird can do that and get away with it. Always focus on a few things and do it really well. That’s one of our core philosophies.

So far, it’s worked well for the company. Combined with adopting tactics that have been strictly by-the-book to having an extremely unconventional to-market strategy to suit audience needs, 99games has proven to be above all else, flexible. It will be interesting to see what approach it takes with Star Chef—which is out later this month.

More developer interviews:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/we-dont-do-small-experimental-games-only-flappy-bird-can-do-that-and-get-away-with-it-an-interview-with-99games/feed/0Hideo Baba's Tales of Xillia 2 special report for Southeast Asia (VIDEO)https://www.techinasia.com/hideo-babas-tales-of-xillia-2-special-report-video/
https://www.techinasia.com/hideo-babas-tales-of-xillia-2-special-report-video/#commentsSat, 09 Aug 2014 02:30:38 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=170737Excited for Tales of Xillia 2? The English edition of the game releases this month on August 19, and boy, do you have a lot to look forward to. In this special report direct from the lovely folk at Bandai Namco, Tales series producer Hideo Baba talks about the game’s storyline, protagonist Ludger, new gameplay and battle system improvements, as well as the Tales of Xillia 2 collector’s edition.

He also shares some interesting little anecdotes from the development process.

[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR4PUq9t-OY[/fve]

If you enjoyed that, check back soon for the next part of this special report, where Baba-san will take us on a tour through the Tales shop in Akihabara in Tokyo!

Details on Tales of Xillia 2:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/hideo-babas-tales-of-xillia-2-special-report-video/feed/0How Blizzard is taking Hearthstone forward, starting with Curse of Naxxramashttps://www.techinasia.com/how-blizzard-is-taking-hearthstone-forward-starting-with-curse-of-naxxramas/
https://www.techinasia.com/how-blizzard-is-taking-hearthstone-forward-starting-with-curse-of-naxxramas/#commentsThu, 31 Jul 2014 07:30:06 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=170042In part two of our interview with Hearthstone executive producer Hamilton Chu, we asked him about motivations behind picking Naxxramas for the game’s first solo adventure, and what we can expect moving forward with Hearthstone.

At Blizzard Entertainment, Chu’s many duties include being responsible for the strategic planning and business operations of Hearthstone as well as managing the creative development department. In other words, Chu’s the perfect guy to weigh in on what’s in store for the game we’ve come to love.

Have at it, card sharks!

Why Naxxramas?

The Naxxramas raid was chosen to be the first solo adventure for Hearthstone because of two things, the first of which was an “old affection for Naxx.”

A bunch of us played [the raid in] World of Warcraft and had a lot of fun memories. It’s such a cool place, full of flavor; Kel’thuzad is such a great character, [and] the bosses are all so interesting. That matches really well with what we wanted to do with Hearthstone.

Chu shared that the Hearthstone development team also wanted to explore the Deathrattle mechanic, an ability certain cards have that triggers upon their destruction. The morbid pre-requisite for Deathrattle, combined with the ghoulish setting of Naxxramas, turned out to be a great way to do that. I mean, can you imagine the Deathrattle mechanic heavily in use for a Zul’gurub raid? No. Players who’ve already fought their way through the recently-opened Plague quarter will probably be able to attest to just how much that mechanic features in it, and how well it does.

But World of Warcraft players will also know—the world of Azeroth is stuffed full of lore. How Chu and his team managed to whittle down the choices to Naxxramas, when there are just as many raids and locales that could have fit the bill? Icecrown Citadel, or just anything from the snow-battered centre of Northrend, would have sufficed quite nicely.

Chu said that it was easy to decide, since everyone had played Warcraft for years. “It’s very easy to start a conversation with each other about what locations were our personal favorites,” he added. He also shared his favorite raid with us: Ulduar! Perhaps that will be the next solo adventure?

Moving forward

Chu said that moving forward, the team was looking to go more the “adventure route” than fully-fledged expansion packs. The intention of the Naxxramas adventure, he said, was for players to take the new cards and integrate them with the current meta, and then go back to playing Hearthstone as a multiplayer game.

That being said, he did admit that Hearthstone is completely different from other Blizzard games, and that there wasn’t a particular development model the team was working off. He also added that the development team was looking for feedback from the community to see what it was enjoying, and to see what direction it should take the game in.

When asked about the pickup rate of the game in Asia, Chu said that he was “happy with the response [to Hearthstone] everywhere”. However he did say that Asia, in spite of its lack of spending power or love for competitive online games, would not be getting alternative pricing or tailored content.

Generally speaking, what Blizzard does is to make games that we feel like anybody would enjoy, no matter what their background or where they are from. I think we’ve been successful and Hearthstone is philosophically no different.

This game is for everyone from all levels of game experience and reasonable locations. Our core philosophy is to make it the best it can be.

And of course, what would an interview about a competitive game be without touching on its eSports?

Chu said that it has been “a little unexpected” how Hearthstone has been embraced so quickly and passionately as a competitive game.

“Our prime focus is what I’ve been talking to you about: making sure [the game] is accessible to all people,” he said, adding that the team didn’t think that Hearthstone would shoot up into the eSports stratosphere to sit alongside Starcraft, since the bar had already been set so high.

“It’s great to see that the scene has really developed,” Chu said. “So much of it has been driven by the scene, including tournament rules, […] how to cast these things and show them on screen, experimenting with different types of tournaments.” He finished off by saying the team was excited to see all the passion for Hearthstone culminate in the Hearthstone World Championship at Blizzcon later this year.

“It’s great to see it grow and evolve.”

Oh, and on its part for competitive Hearthstone? A spectator mode is in the works.

Happy (card) hunting!

Want more Hearthstone?

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/how-blizzard-is-taking-hearthstone-forward-starting-with-curse-of-naxxramas/feed/04 things that aren’t going to happen in Hearthstonehttps://www.techinasia.com/4-things-that-arent-going-to-happen-in-hearthstone/
https://www.techinasia.com/4-things-that-arent-going-to-happen-in-hearthstone/#commentsWed, 30 Jul 2014 09:30:06 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=169960We were given the opportunity to speak to Hearthstone executive producer Hamilton Chu this morning, and through the course of our interview he confirmed the non-existence, or perhaps current lack of existence, of several Hearthstone hopes, dreams, and myths.

No server transfers

For now, at least. When asked if the team was thinking of including paid region transfers like in World of Warcraft, where users can fork over $25 to move a character from one realm to another, Chu replied: “we don’t have anything to talk about along those lines right now”.

Translated: not any time soon, folks! For the record, Southeast Asia should be playing on the Americas server.

No prices to suit developing Asia’s spending power

In the Philippines, mobile phone users have a monthly average spend of $4 per user. In India, people face dilemmas of choosing between a phone app, or food for two days. So one Naxxramas wing for $6.99, in comparison, is actually pretty expensive for Asian players. We asked Chu if Blizzard would ever consider alternative pricing schemes for Asia because of that, to which he replied:

Something that’s important to us is to keep it fundamentally fair globally, and I understand that economic situations are different across the world, but one of the core philosophies [of the game] is to genuinely make it a fun, free-to-play experience.

There are no cards that are locked behind pay gates[…]. You can play Naxxramas for gold and it will take a bit of time, but not a crazy amount of time.

He elaborated on how people had options to play and grind it out, or to spend if they really wanted to.

No Diablo or Starcraft boards

Later, he also dug up a conceptual take of Hearthstone within a Starcraft context. Both super-nifty boards were shared in some of the Asian Hearthstone community groups on Facebook, and for a while discussion buzzed with the possibility of Blizzard doing a crossover for the game.

But these dreams are dead and will never rise again. Chu said that Hearthstone is “so inspired by and integrated with the Warcraft universe that it’s hard to imagine it being too focused on something like that.” He added that it’s a great pairing, and that there’s no shortage of Warcraft lore.

I think we’re going to reap the benefits of such a wonderful universe and IP for a long time.

No same-board four player games

Remember the concept art we shared from a Chinese artist, who imagined Hearthstone as a four player game, with two players one each side of the board?

Hearthstone is just fundamentally designed to be a one versus one game, so much of the game is really designed around that specific way of playing[…]that’s really what we’re focusing on.

However he added that the team was always looking out to evolve and continue to be interesting to players. “Who knows what can happen somewhere down the line?” he asked, but finished off by saying that for now, the single-player experience was the team’s focus.

Want to learn more about Naxxramas, and the motivations behind it as the first solo campaign for Hearthstone? Or how about what’s in store for the game, and how Asia is doing in terms of competitive ranking? Check back soon for part two our interview with Hamilton Chu.

Related:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/4-things-that-arent-going-to-happen-in-hearthstone/feed/0Japan’s most startup-focused mayor wants to turn his city into an entrepreneurial hubhttps://www.techinasia.com/fukuoka-mayor-takashima-asia-startup-city-japan-interview/
https://www.techinasia.com/fukuoka-mayor-takashima-asia-startup-city-japan-interview/#commentsWed, 30 Jul 2014 08:30:48 +0000https://www.techinasia.com/?p=185686

Unless you live in Japan, finding the city of Fukuoka on a map might be a difficult task. The city of 1.5 million residents, located on Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu, may not hold the same cache as Tokyo or Kyoto when it comes to business or sightseeing. If you’re thinking about founding a startup or investing in one, however, you might want to start paying attention to it. Fukuoka mayor Soichiro Takashima (pictured, above left) has plans to put his city on the map as a centrally-located tech hub for East Asia.

Mayor Takashima assumed his post in December 2010 at the age of 36 – a rare case in Japan, where people tend to enter politics in their mid-40s. Before entering government, he spent time working as a television personality – which shows both in his celebrity-like looks and casual demeanor. But despite his friendly appearance, Mr. Takashima is a no-nonsense politician – he once placed a month-long ban on alcohol consumption among Fukuoka’s public servants after a firefighter and a vice-principal were arrested on alcohol-related charges.

Last March, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the establishment of special economic zones across Japan. Each zone has been assigned a specific purpose, and Fukuoka’s is attracting startups. In line with the prime minister’s so-called “third arrow” of Abenomics – which emphasizes deregulation – Fukuoka’s venture firms will be able to hire foreign talent with fewer bureaucratic hurdles and pay significantly lower corporate taxes.

In addition to the good news for startups, Fukuoka was recently ranked tenth in Monocle Magazine’s list of the world’s most livable cities (up from number 12 last year). Once known as a development center for semiconductors, Fukuoka is now famous for its pungent tonkotsu ramen and booming customer service industry. It also boasts Japan’s highest growth rate for young people (aged 15-29) – a statistic of particular interest in a country plagued by its rapidly aging and shrinking population.

Two of Japan’s most recognizable mobile entertainment brands have already taken note of the city’s potential. The incredibly popular chat app Line opened a satellite office there in 2009, which later spun off its own gaming company called PlayArt Fukuoka. Social gaming giant Gumi also set up a Fukuoka operation in 2011, with the goal of producing titles that appeal to a broader international audience.

With the combination of reformist policies, a young labor force, and the piqued interest of established tech companies, Fukuoka may actually carve out a place for itself on the global tech stage.

Tech in Asia recently sat down with Mr. Takashima to discuss his plans for turning Fukuoka into a world-class startup city and how he will convince both local and foreign entrepreneurs to pass on Tokyo.

Japan has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, currently over 35 percent – second only to the US among OECD countries. The central government wants to lower that figure significantly, but Fukuoka wants to go as low as 15 percent for venture firms. Is such an ambitious goal possible?

Mayor Takashima: Fukuoka City has been designated as one of the national economic special zones, for startups specifically, and that creates a lot of opportunities that I’d like to realize.

The corporate tax in Japan is over 30 percent, but the national government is trying to lower it to a level of 20 percent. When foreign companies want to invest in Japan, they compare the corporate tax rate to that of neighboring countries. Singapore charges only 17 percent, for example, so if there’s another choice, many will choose a more financially advantageous place than Japan. By 2020, the national government will try to double the total amount of foreign investment to Japan, and Fukuoka will also make every effort to follow the national government’s policy.

Another important issue at play is the low rate of startups in Japan – nationally, they make up only four percent of companies as a whole. In order to increase the rate of startups, we have to establish an adequate environment. They are trying to challenge themselves, taking up risks, and they’re in the stage of uncertain stability – of course, there are many challenges for startups. So, for the first five years after a startup is established, we want to decrease the corporate tax to about 15 percent so that those companies are able to maintain their strength. It will also more gently lead them to the next challenge – capturing investment.

Japan as a whole has many hardships to overcome, and Fukuoka, as a special economic zone, will play the important role of a “drill” that will break down the bedrock of regulations in Japan. That is our vision.

How can Fukuoka use geography to its advantage when appealing to startups?

Mayor Takashima: The other day, I went to London to attend an investment seminar with Prime Minister Abe and after the seminar we had several discussions about global investments. There are so many people who want to invest in the Asian market, including China, and they think of Fukuoka as a business hub within Asia for their companies.

Compared to Tokyo, Singapore, and Hong Kong, Fukuoka is regarded as a more livable city because its business cost is reasonable, the cost of living is cheaper, and because the city provides the perfect environment for children to grow up and receive a great education. Fukuoka is proud of its strong record of safety, security, and cleanliness. In Tokyo or other major Asian cities, the business cost is not only higher, but there are just too many people to be considered comfortably livable.

Additionally, Fukuoka is located in the middle of Asia – about the same distance from both Tokyo and Shanghai – with direct flights to 19 international cities.

How important is attracting foreign startups and does Fukuoka provide any specific assistance or incentives for them, specifically?

Mayor Takashima: There are so many things that Fukuoka can provide to startups and foreign investors. In the past, we have provided many incentives, and from now on, as Fukuoka has been designated as Japan’s special zone for startups and job creation, we’d like to provide as much assistance as possible to foreign investors. It is very important to attract domestic startups, but of course we’re concerned about the international ones as well.

Fukuoka’s history dates back more than 2,000 years – longer than Kyoto – so the driving force of Fukuoka is communication and cultural exchange. That attracts people to our city. I mentioned that we have flight services to many international cities, but as a port city we also have an advantage when it comes to distribution services. Actually, for the past 24 years, Hakata Port has been the number one port in terms of the number of the passenger arrivals, so we have a very strong foundation for accepting foreigners. We want to welcome people who are willing to challenge themselves, and we’re ready to accept multinational companies and many foreign workers.

Actually, I think that we have a stronger foundation for accepting foreigners than Tokyo. For example, we have multi-language signs around the city in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and English, and we offer the same languages for announcements in the train stations and on the trains themselves. We also have 210 medical institutions that can provide health care services in English. We even have free wifi, which was established by the city government, and we’ve also distributed a DVD regarding international rules and manners and how to prepare for natural disasters. These things make Fukuoka more advanced than other cities.

Tokyo has a lot of startup infrastructure in place – including VCs and seed accelerator programs – that Fukuoka currently lacks. How can you convince both Japanese and foreign startups to set up their businesses in Fukuoka rather than Tokyo?

Mayor Takashima: The lower business cost and the geographical proximity to the rest of Asia are major strengths of Fukuoka, but the main point is that our city provides a stress-free environment – it’s just more livable than Tokyo.

Startups do more than just create a new company – they often create new value that we haven’t seen before. Fukuoka is a city of artists and musicians, so it is equipped with a good environment for culture and the arts. There’s also an invisible pulse from nature that flows through the city. In Tokyo, people feel the beat of the subway or the traffic, but Fukuoka has a very unique environmental situation because its so close to nature.

If you drive for just a short time, you can go to hot springs, to the beach, and into the mountains. You can enjoy all of these activities at a very low cost. Fukuoka boasts modern urban functions, but also a natural environment filled with rich culture and a history that involves many interactions with foreign cultures. Such an environment can easily create new values – that’s the most important thing that Fukuoka can offer.

What is your growth target for Fukuoka’s startup ecosystem? How many new companies would you like to attract and by when?

Mayor Takashima: The rate of startup establishment in Fukuoka was 6.2 percent of all companies in 2012. We would like to raise that to 13 percent by 2018. As far as the actual number of individual startups that we’d like to see, our target is to progress from an annual average of 43 new firms in 2012 to 55 in 2018.

Are there any cities in particular that you hope to model Fukuoka after?

Mayor Takashima: We naturally do want for Fukuoka to form the heart of an ecosystem analogous to Silicon Valley, and to do so in Fukuoka’s own unique style. We regard Seattle as one kind of model city, as it’s given rise to one global company after another – Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Amazon – while leveraging its livability as an asset and projecting an image of firmly established growth.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/fukuoka-mayor-takashima-asia-startup-city-japan-interview/feed/0“Thank you to all the haters,” says Newbee’s Hao, “and sorry to disappoint you.”https://www.techinasia.com/thank-you-to-all-the-haters-says-newbees-hao-and-sorry-to-disappoint-you/
https://www.techinasia.com/thank-you-to-all-the-haters-says-newbees-hao-and-sorry-to-disappoint-you/#commentsTue, 29 Jul 2014 12:00:14 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=169829Chinese regional newspaper Xinmin Evening News interviewed newly-crowned The International 4 champion Newbee about its $5 million win last week as part of a larger piece about Dota 2 and China’s successes this year in the competition. The interview was transcribed and posted online by Chinese gaming site Duowan, and ran with the headline “Newbee: eSports are not addictive games”—a bold statement in a country that has a storied history with gaming addiction, and where that negative perception has even led to criticisms of e-sports players only a few months ago.

As the paper notes, the winning of a world record prize pool by mostly Chinese teams, and especially the first place win by Newbee, has captured the Chinese media’s attention, with commentators calling Dota 2 a “get-rich-quick game”. The paper was quick to compare each member of Newbee’s after-tax winnings: 3.9 million RMB (about $630k) each, with that of the recently-victorious German soccer team, where each player earned €300k ($400k). Granted, the latter team had many more players than Newbee’s five-man squad, but then one competition is the world’s largest single sporting event, and the other is a video game—something a lot of people are still resisting even calling an eSport.

In its interview with team captain Zhang “xiao8” Ning, the paper focused on his having taken part in the dating show “One in a Hundred”, as well as that he was the only married member of the team. Some people, it claimed, have asked xiao8 whether he’s still going to play Dota 2, to which he replied instantly, “I definitely will, I can earn so much money from it.” When asked what he planned to do with the money, he said he planned to buy an apartment in Shanghai. “And the remainder?” The writer asked, to which xiao8 jokingly replied “pay off the mortgage!”

The interview took a somber turn with its segment on Wang “Banana” Jiao, the oldest member of the team. He discussed the relatively short peak eSports athletes experience, claiming to be already considered elderly in the scene. He also acknowledged that his “map awareness and reaction times clearly can’t compare with younger players’”. “Once you’re past 24,” he concluded, “your ‘golden age’ is already over.”

Banana is one of the last remaining active players from the first generation of Chinese Dota, though the idea he touches on has been an issue in the (far older) fighting game scene for a number of years now. Issues related to ageing might well be something we see more of in eSports in general in the years to come.

On a lighter note however, perhaps the best comment of all came from Chen “Hao” Zhihao, who joked: “thank you so much to all the haters, you helped me to keep up my fighting spirit… to those who look down on me, I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

Read more:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/thank-you-to-all-the-haters-says-newbees-hao-and-sorry-to-disappoint-you/feed/0What is it like being the #1 Challenger in League of Legends SG/MY server? (VIDEO)https://www.techinasia.com/what-is-it-like-being-the-1-challenger-in-league-of-legends-sgmy-server-video/
https://www.techinasia.com/what-is-it-like-being-the-1-challenger-in-league-of-legends-sgmy-server-video/#commentsTue, 29 Jul 2014 09:30:58 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=169837Nicholas ‘MeZZ’ Tang is 17 years old. He studies in Temasek Polytechnic. He plays League of Legends. He’s also the number one Challenger in the SG/MY server.

How did he get there, and what does he plan to do now that he is there? Find out in our exclusive interview.

[fve]http://youtu.be/2gtIEGPz4KI[/fve]

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]]>https://www.techinasia.com/what-is-it-like-being-the-1-challenger-in-league-of-legends-sgmy-server-video/feed/0The death of Trine: a cautionary tale about game development in Indiahttps://www.techinasia.com/the-death-of-trine-a-cautionary-tale-about-game-development-in-india/
https://www.techinasia.com/the-death-of-trine-a-cautionary-tale-about-game-development-in-india/#commentsTue, 29 Jul 2014 03:30:48 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=168532Trine (not to be confused with the awesome game series of the same name) was one of India’s first console studios. It got mainstream public attention in India for its announcement of the interesting-looking racer Streets of Mumbai, and while that was only a ploy for attention, since then Trine has made ten games ranging from RPGs like Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods to cricket titles such as Street Cricket Champions. It was arguably one of India’s most prolific studios.

I managed to speak to then-CEO Sangam Gupta (who, if Google is to be believed, hasn’t been interviewed in six years). The ex-CEO and erstwhile owner of Trine now runs Rebelfiction. I wanted to know where it all went wrong for one of India’s brighter studios. He boils it down to himself:

It was my personal managerial mistake. We had overestimated ourselves, to be very frank. For […] the resources we had available, we should have got rid of [some other resources] to keep the payments going.

Though this sounds like a rather simple error, it’s not the only thing that torpedoed Trine. Prying further, it seems like mismanagement was just one of the many problems the company had.

A screenshot of Streets of Mumbai’s early coverage. It was on the front page of Hindustan Times, a leading Indian newspaper. There are no archives barring this blurry image that Google threw up.

Passion and publishers

Gupta was trying to build a studio that was different. His vision wasn’t to create a pure service- driven business similar to the IT sector, nor was it to be as frugally-run as some of his competitors.

I didn’t want to run this like an IT business. That’s not gaming. We’re gamers. We’re doing this out passion. We’re doing what we love. Sure, we’re an entertainment company, but we have to deliver. And I banked on my team delivering. That’s where I found my position to be the worst. Not only am I getting heat from employees for not getting paid but I’m getting heat from clients. Publishers would get upset.

Specifically, publishers got upset with Trine missing milestones and release dates. Teams at Trine were given the liberty to set their own milestones, but that didn’t work as smoothly as Gupta had hoped. They sometimes missed by as much as five months. Naturally that had an adverse effect on the balance sheet.

My vision for Trine was to give all the guys a platform to perform. Every milestone given to a publisher was [set] by the team. With Move Street Cricket 2, my own team said that they’d submit the gold master by November. That didn’t happen until April. I clearly told every single guy that if this happens there will be payment issues. During the production phase there were no payment issues because we were delivering on time and we were getting paid on time. It’s not like I was running away with the money.

Part of the problem, Gupta says, was that he didn’t have the clout to hold publishers over a barrel when it came to game delays. All the money that came into Trine, he claims, was from clients such as Sony and Jo Wood, and if the game wasn’t done on schedule they’d simply stop payment:

No external funding was there. We were purely reliant on funding from the clients and that’s limited. I remember having discussions with Jo Wood where developers across the world [would] hold publishers to ransom. Either they pay or the code would not be handed over. Publishers already invested ten million Euros in a game; they have to give another one or two million to support the project. We didn’t have those benefits. We couldn’t blackmail somebody because we weren’t big enough.

A few ex-employees chalked the issues with delays up to inefficient management and inexperience on part of the employees. But when they did end up backed into a corner by their own deadlines, employees claimed, Gupta had no issues with making employees work extreme hours, even if they hadn’t been paid in months.

Just some of the games that Trine worked on.

Fire at will

Part of the problem was also Gupta himself. He’s certainly a divisive figure, and lot of the employees I spoke to lauded him for being approachable and keeping an open door policy. But an equal number felt he made life tough for project leads who wanted to keep their teams in check, as the open-door approach led them to feeling redundant. Some also felt he was too immature, brash, and impulsive to lead a company.

They refer to him as a friendly boss. But he was extremely evasive when it came to discussing important matters, they said, although most found him to be perceptive of the issues present in the company.

And Gupta himself admits he wasn’t exactly playing by the book all the time, especially when it came to firing people. If he wasn’t happy with an employee’s performance, he’d fire them on the spot. That’s usually not done in India; you simply can’t hire and fire people without due process. Giving them severance or asking them to serve out a one or three month notice is the norm. Gupta says of his detractors:

All the guys who are talking publicly are the sort who were terminated immediately. If I get mad I just go the computer, turn off the monitor and tell the person to leave. I believe if I am paying a salary and giving you an opportunity which other people can get as well, [so] I want dedication.

Expensive India

Gupta says he also had problems finding reliable talent. Hiring in gaming has always been a cause for concern in this country. He cites the example of a programmer who brazenly took off from work for three weeks without prior notice, leading to massive delays on meeting crucial milestones.

To add to this, other countries caught up extremely well and eroded the cost advantage of publishers doing business in India. Gupta cites the current situation in the animation industry: according to him, India is twice as expensive as China and Thailand. He gave me the example of what transpired during the planning of Trine’s cricket games:

Street Cricket Champions 2 (on the PS2 and PSP) was a re-skin as per Sony’s mandate. All we did was re-skin all the art assets and fix a few bugs. We couldn’t do much since the team behind the first Street Cricket Champions left. The engine was the Infernal engine and by then Terminal Reality had shut down so support was nil. We did the bare minimum. But we still spent INR 95,00,000 (approx. $158,000) on Street Cricket Champions 2 on the artwork including characters, animations, UI, and even salaries.

A year later we thought of doing a Street Cricket Championship 3 for the PS2 and PSP. One of our guys suggested that we get the art outsourced by a developer overseas. We got quotes from developers in China, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand who have worked on a lot of games. They were willing to do the entire art for 13 lacs [around $22,000]. If you’re getting it done much cheaper elsewhere, why would you get it done from India?

A screenshot from Street Cricket Champions 2 one of the studio’s better efforts.

“Indian bullshit”

When other studios would have halved their size, Gupta believed in going against the grain. Many Indian developers working at the bigger game studios feel that infrastructure, software and hardware resources are scarce. As a result, the games suffer. Gupta wanted to avoid that, and in the case of Move Street Cricket 2, he was adamant about making the shift to the Unreal engine and managed to get a buy-in from Trine’s tech team. His reason was simple:

Let’s get a game out where we don’t have to say “we don’t have this”, I don’t buy into that Indian bullshit where “Oh it’s made in India so it’s like that”; the license for Infernal was $20,000 and Unreal was $150,000. I could have [stuck with Infernal and] pocketed the money or paid off the guys, but we needed to get a good game out. The animation system needed to be on par, the lighting system had to be on par.

Some ex-employees rubbished these claims, stating that licenses were bought solely to prevent any lawsuits from engine holders. At the time, according to them, Trine was not paying to use the engines in its possession (something Gupta denies). How legitimate these insinuations are is unclear.

But whatever the truth about licenses, costs were a problem. Prior to landing a deal with Sony, he pursued Electronic Arts and Codemasters to make cricket games based on their licenses, but nothing materialized. The catch with Sony, however, was operating on a smaller budget with each subsequent game:

For Move Street Cricket 2, the budget was far less than that of the first Move Street Cricket. If you see the difference in quality, it was still [an improvement]. We’re not getting paid ten to 15 million dollars a game. We were getting paid ten percent of what most studios got for a basic AAA game.

Move Street Cricket 2 might have had a smaller budget but that didn’t stop the Sony marketing machine from pulling out all the stops with an India PS3 bundle.

Movie tie-in madness

In spite of this, Gupta claims that the cricket games were commercially successful, due to the fact that there wasn’t a competing cricket game since EA’s Cricket 07 was no longer available. Then came Ra.One. This was a game based on a movie starring Bollywood’s favorite hero, Shahrukh Khan. Usually most of Bollywood’s efforts in gaming were limited to mobile games. In a country where Bollywood actors are worshipped, a fully-fledged console game was a big deal.

But movie games are usually of poor quality due to shortened development timelines, and expectations were high. It was a pressure cooker situation for Trine and Sony. Jim Ryan (President and CEO of SCE Europe) had high expectations on releasing the game on time due to the massive marketing spends behind it, as well as Shahrukh Khan promoting it himself. Completed in around nine months, Ra.One was critically panned, and deservedly so. It’s something even Gupta admits to:

The game sucked. You know it. I know it. It’s not that just because we made the game we call it amazing. We knew very well what was going on. Sony knew what was going on. It’s not like they saw the build at the last moment. They were getting a build every 15 days. If we didn’t deliver, Red Chillies (Khan’s company) would get super pissed. We were forced to do it. Not only were we fighting battles externally we had internal politics to deal with as well.

Shahrukh Khan promoting Ra.One at a local launch event. For the uninitiated he’s the guy in the middle.

Unpaid royalties

All this however, amounted to naught. Sure, the game did well, but there were still problems. Salaries weren’t paid on time and money from publishers was nowhere to be found.

We get paid in development costs plus some royalties, which we never got. You can speak to Sony about it, “Sangam is still bitching about the royalties”. It’s a public thing, I’ve been very mad with Sony about it.

Although he claims Sony owes Trine royalties, as of this writing Sony hasn’t commented on whether such a discrepancy exists.

Ownership oddities

Realising that Trine was facing a cash crunch, Peeyush Agarwal, an early angel investor in the company, offered Gupta a way out. They would launch Trine on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) via an initial public offering (IPO). The proceeds would go towards Trine making games. Gupta claims that the IPO was successful and that the company was listed on the BSE.

Trine’s IPO got listed. Check us out on the BSE. The guy who promised us the funds offered us a deal, giving us money upfront which would support our development. Being in the business for the last seven years, I was annoyed at depending on someone every month to pay so I could pay it further and do the work for them. We had the capability. Though ratings weren’t good, we did pretty well commercially. My thinking was if a company can make money off us, why can’t we do it ourselves?

So this guy was the original angel investor in Trine at one point. He came in and said, “Get your company listed, I’ll give you funds from the IPO to do what you want to do.” To me it sounded to be a good deal. We were in a transition phase. Move Street Cricket 2 just ended and we were looking for funds for a next-gen cricket game. We already had development units from Sony and Microsoft. We started working for that. I had funds to support the company for three months. February we talked about the IPO; March the paperwork started. By three months I expected to have the money to continue. Production continued. The company got listed. [But] the money never came in.

At least, that’s what Gupta told us. However, we weren’t able to find any evidence of Trine being listed on the BSE, and the Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs website has Trine filed as an unlisted entity (i.e. a company that has not IPOed).

Trine’s company details as available on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website.

Gupta claims that Peeyush Agarwal actually bought the company in order to run a shell company on the stock market. We contacted Agarwal via email for comment for this story but have not received a response. From April 2013 onwards, the staff at Trine had salary delays. Gupta claims no one left because they believed in the project. But during a meeting in July he had to lay off half of his workforce. He maintains, however, that he tried his best to help employees get paid.

After selling the company to Agarwal, Gupta claims that it was no longer his responsibility to deal with the company’s debts to employees, as he was simply the CEO and no longer the company’s owner.

But Gupta’s claims about Agarwal’s ownership raise questions. Ex-employees I spoke to had been told different things about the company’s ownership, and I was unable to find documentation suggesting that Peeyush Agarwal—the man Gupta claims is responsible for Trine’s debts—actually owns Trine. For example, the company’s 2013 Annual General Meeting was held in August, months after Gupta claimed Agarwal bought the company, but Agarwal’s name only appears as a shareholder, with a stake significantly smaller than Gupta’s. Agarwal’s name doesn’t appear in any of Trine’s filings on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ website, either. In fact, Gupta is still listed as a director.

A list of Trine’s directors. “Sangam Mohan” is Sangam Gupta. Addresses removed to protect their privacy.

The only other place I found reference to Agarwal was in the company’s IPO prospectus, as a selling shareholder with a 21.22 percent stake.

If Trine did list on the BSE—which there seems to be no evidence of—then Agarwal, as a selling shareholder, would no longer own his piece of the company. And if the IPO never happened, Agarwal’s 21 percent stake is certainly not enough for him to claim ownership of the company. If Agarwal is indeed Trine’s current owner, there should be documentation on file that proves it, but I was unable to locate any. All available documents present with the registrar of companies seem to be in conflict with Gupta’s statement.

We contacted Gupta to follow up with him about these discrepancies, and he states that none of the information was submitted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (the regulatory body for the investment market in India) due to the dispute. He saysthe IPO prospectus hasn’t been updated since April last year.

Trine’s shareholder list as per the company’s last Annual General Meeting. Peeyush Agarwal’s stake is nowhere close to Gupta’s.

The boss leaves

In any event, Gupta says that he sold the company to Agarwal and that a few months later he resigned as CEO. In our original interview, he told me:

I resigned from the company in May. Peeyush Agarwal owns it now. He gave me in writing that he would take care of the liabilities. That was a ground point for me resigning. I don’t want MNS people coming to my house. This was communicated to every team member that I am not a part of this and whosoever needs help in claiming their money I would help them get in touch or even offer legal help. I was pissed because my equity worth INR 11 crore (around $1,831,000) [still hasn’t been paid]. In fact I have filed a lawsuit against Peeyush Agarwal.

But again, the documentation seems to contradict Gupta’s account of what happened. Gupta was listed as one of the company’s directors, which means it’s mandatory for his resignation to be submitted into the company’s public records. Mandar Joshi, one of the Trine directors, resigned in November 2013, and the documents exist to prove it. But I could find no paperwork to back up Gupta’s claims of having left the company in May 2013. In fact, he even signed off on Trine’s Annual Returns statement dated August 1, 2013. That suggests that he was still acting as a director at Trine long after he claims to have resigned.

Gupta claims to have resigned in May, 2013 but he’s still been signing off on company documentation as late as August of the same year.

When asked about this apparent discrepancy, Gupta responded that as far as his resignation is concerned, it did happen last year and the relevant documents wouldn’t be “shared to a games journalists [sic].”

Perhaps unconvinced by Gupta’s claims of having nothing to do with Trine anymore, disgruntled ex-employees have continued to try to get money from him. He says:

[A] few guys were let off on a sour note. There were those who tried alternative methods like bringing a political party [to rough me up] or calling my house and threatening my wife if they didn’t get paid. It becomes a personal issue. If you want to do it the legal way, file a case against me.

Ferrari fallacies

The fact of the matter is people were laid off without getting paid. Gupta says the company tried in every possible way to ensure that ex-employees would leave for better prospects and with glowing appraisal letters. But many of them still weren’t paid. Naturally, a few of the annoyed ones took their rage to the Internet. Gupta himself was resigned to what transpired:

Whenever the money comes in, it will come in. If I don’t have it, what do you expect me to do? It’s simple as that. People were talking, “sell your Ferrari.” If I had one I’d sell it.

What he’s referring to was an anonymous blog post from last year. It’s a poorly-worded rant that details the supposed working conditions at Trine. It states he bought himself a new car while not paying a single penny in salaries and while offloading employees and skipping on office rent. Though it’s currently offline, an archive of it is not. Gupta vehemently denies these claims, stating that Trine is still in the red:

We were literally surviving on a monthly basis. There were no savings in the company. We still have debts. I never wanted to run it as a business. That’s why I’m very vocal against guys like Gameshastra for running it like a business. I’m still abusing them for it. Gaming is not an IT business. It needs to be run in a proper way. Ask my team if they ever had any deficiency in terms of hardware, software or infrastructure.

Of course, whether his was the “proper way” is debatable at best, and Gupta himself admits that he invested too much in a lot of things such as a full-blown render farm and a slick office. At the same time he states that instead of employees venting their ire in cyberspace for all to see, they should have contacted him directly. Only few of those who have however, actually received anything in the way of payments due. Most of them say they didn’t even get a response and if they did, it was simply a plea for more time.

That said, for a lot of ex-employees, Trine really was a relief from companies that had programmers swapping memory sticks to get their PCs to work (yes, this happens in India). The hardware was good, work timing was flexible, the office was swanky, and there was freedom to work as they liked. If it weren’t for salary delays and long hours, it would have been ideal.

New company, old hands

After the debacle that was Trine, Gupta founded Rebelfiction, a new game studio that’s a part of Crave India, a group companies that are in industries ranging from hospitality to manufacturing batteries. Crave India would be responsible for office space, funding and whatever else would be needed to make Rebelfiction succeed. “I’m employed so I’ll be fighting for my [employees] rather than [clients]”, he says.

Rebelfiction’s website. Which is what shows up when you type “www.trinegames.com” on a browser.

The core team of Rebelfiction consists of talent from Trine (some of whom had left the company earlier due to salary issues) along with international heavy-hitters such as Dave Glenn (art director on Diablo II) as the creative director. He mentions that the studio has six games in the pipeline across platforms and is looking at a November launch. But Gupta still reminisces about what could have been at Trine:

I still trust all the people who worked with me. I still believe that if all the people who worked with me till 2010 came back. I’d make something fucking spectacular.

And though he might have made something worthwhile, the fact remains that some of those who worked with him have since given up on the games industry forever. Whether or not Trine’s debts to them are really on Gupta’s head remains unclear. But Gupta himself has moved on to Rebelfiction, and Trine’s story now seems like both a model and a cautionary tale for aspirational Indian game developers.

More on studio closures

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/the-death-of-trine-a-cautionary-tale-about-game-development-in-india/feed/1An interview with the creators of Unrest, an Indian RPG like no otherhttps://www.techinasia.com/an-interview-with-the-creators-of-unrest-an-indian-rpg-like-no-other/
https://www.techinasia.com/an-interview-with-the-creators-of-unrest-an-indian-rpg-like-no-other/#commentsFri, 18 Jul 2014 02:30:14 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=168655Pyrodactyl Games is what happens when a studio decides to make games for itself rather than chase what’s trending.

Forged from the heady fever than encapsulated many a ’90s kid with an aptitude for code and games; Arvind Yadav, founder of Pyrodactyl, cut his teeth by working on Half-Life 2 mods such as Dystopia.

On discovering that licensing the Source engine was cost-prohibitive, he decided to go ahead and make his own game engine. The Source isn’t exactly suited for 2D games anyway, and making his own engine also enabled him to learn a lot of programming fundamentals.

This resulted in Pyrodactyl’s debut effort, A.Typical RPG. In his words, it was a game on “how much college sucks and my god, aren’t adults annoying!?”.

Following this was Will Fight For Food, a quirky role-playing brawler and now, Unrest, an RPG set in ancient India. I managed to have a conversation with Yadav on what makes Pyrodactyl different, why Unrest isn’t your usual RPG, and the social issues prevalent in his latest effort.

I started making games when I was in college. Pyrodactyl is a studio that makes role-playing games and [they] usually have very different conversation mechanics. My first game had you choosing tone and emotions instead of replies. The second one allowed for over 48 different responses to a query in some case. And Unrest has a different way of judging an NPCs opinion of the player by using three variables: friendship, respect and fear.

One of the rare PC-only developers

In a country where mobile game developers are in the majority, it’s rare to see someone develop for PC. Reason being, for most it doesn’t make commercial sense despite the humungous install-base and new found profitability. Yadav seems to be cut from a different cloth. He doesn’t throw statistics, numbers or jargon around. Rather, his reasons for sticking to the PC as a development platform revolve around personal interest:

I think part of it is that I always wanted to make games that I would play. When I was growing up the games I played were on PC. I’m a huge fan of the Prince of Persia trilogy, and my brother and I played a lot of Virtua Fighter 2 on PC as well. I never really got into mobile games growing up. People when given the freedom make games that they want to play. I guess if someone grew up playing mobile games, they’d gravitate to that.

What makes a game “Indian”?

While it’s admirable for him to follow his passion, it was odd to see a game from India, steeped in Indian culture. His reasons for making Unrest were, in his words: “To see Indian stories and Indian protagonists in video games, which is super rare”. His goal was to make something holistic and organic that wouldn’t seem like a force-fit by any stretch:

What I was interested in was modelling social and caste systems in a game. To make a game Indian I can’t take Super Mario and put the guy in a dhoti kurta [traditional Indian clothes]. Or if it plays like a match-3 where the diamonds or whatever are Indianised a bit, it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t feel Indian. It’s better to consider mechanics, plot and how the game plays to give it the right feel.

Versus mythology

Though Unrest is set in ancient India, unlike most portrayals of the era, there are no elements of mythology. Modern day Indian entertainment is replete with flying chariots and magic weapons thanks to TV shows based on epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata. And if it’s not that, period pieces such as Bollywood’s Ashoka and Jodhaa Akbar focused on the grandeur of their respective era.

Compared to these, Unrest is extremely grounded. You play normal characters and you don’t have any super-powers. There’s scarcely any combat. In an age where video games are synonymous with empowerment, it’s a different take. But it’s deliberate, he tells me:

When you give the player a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So combat will undermine the message we’re trying to tell in the game. It’s just another mechanism. There’s no rule that your game has to revolve around combat. We went for a grounded approach because that’s suits what Pyrodactyl usually does: games with multiple endings, scenarios and options.

He goes on to explain that there’s a need to have more than just the binary outcome that combat provides in all games i.e. kill or be killed, and that it’s usually an attempt by developers to resolve gameplay systems that aren’t as cohesive as they should be. Instead of adding one more mechanic, it made more sense to focus on a few that haven’t been done in this manner before.

Fundamentally I think, in any RPG for me, are interpersonal relationships, how I role-play my character: am I [socially] removed? Do I try to please everyone? Do I please a few people? Generally RPGs are about role-playing in a world. If we put combat in it, for example the demo scenario, the entire weight of the social system is lost.

He goes on to explain that combat happens Unrest when the player ends up angering way too many NPCs. It’s meant to take you by surprise and that it is possible to play the game in its entirety without experiencing combat at all. A single play through is around three to four hours, he tells me. In order to experience everything the story has to offer, you’ll need to play it at least twice.

Why did you choose to make an RPG?

The lack of combat might have you thinking of other genres, like visual novels, and it did have me wondering as to why Unrest wasn’t a visual novel instead of an RPG. Yadav tells me it’s because that’s the way the game was envisioned. Though some might find traversing across farms in a village an annoyance, the idea was to focus on exploration:

I play a lot of visual novels for story structure and such. But when I was thinking of ancient India, in my head it was it was walking on a dusty path in a village, much like the demo you see.

And this focus extends to the game’s UI and level structure. Unlike most games that give you a hint (if not a full picture view of what your choices would lead to), Yadav prefers not handholding the users with the use of colored dialogue options or choices labelled as good or evil as he feels it dilutes the experience rather than make it richer.

Female representation

Unrest‘s demo had you in the role of a girl named Tanya all set to be married off at the tender age of 15 to a man from a different caste. She’s just one of the many characters you end up playing in the game, but the most interesting. That may be because although Yadav is male, he made sure women were involved in the game’s development process, too. He told me: “I’ve had freelancers who were women work on this game. Some have been doing commissioned art for the project since 2012 and others have had input on the narrative.”

Social issues in Unrest

Further along the discussion I asked him about something he mentioned on the game’s Kickstarter page: that the game would feature social issues prevalent in India today. He was a bit hesitant at first, fearing to offend some of the more sensitive sections of the internet, but he eventually opened up, saying:

For example, the scenario in the demo, it deals with stuff like child marriage and arranged marriage, it touches on the caste system. Later on you play as a priest. In olden times priests would go door to door for alms, diksha as it was called, we touch upon that aspect as well as begging. And the last scenario has tones of communal violence.

Not exactly scandalous or taboo, but it’s a start. Most games from India rarely touch upon social issues. Be it arranged marriage or the caste system, these things are rarely discussed in games. It’s refreshing to see the most interactive of mediums delve into some of these issues in a manner that so far appears balanced and nuanced.

While Yadav doesn’t have any concrete plans on what he’s working on next, what with the launch of Unrest weighing heavily on his mind, I can’t wait to see what’s next from Pyrodactyl.

Unrest is out next week on July 23. From what we’ve played it looks to be one of the better games coming out of India in a long time. Stay tuned to our full review.

More developer interviews:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/an-interview-with-the-creators-of-unrest-an-indian-rpg-like-no-other/feed/0Japanese-American entrepreneur William Saito: I only bet on those who have failedhttps://www.techinasia.com/japaneseamerican-entrepreneur-william-saito-bet-failed/
https://www.techinasia.com/japaneseamerican-entrepreneur-william-saito-bet-failed/#commentsWed, 16 Jul 2014 08:34:42 +0000https://www.techinasia.com/?p=184904

At Creative Lounge Mov, a popular co-working space in Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya district, a chorus of keyboard strokes fill the air as mostly 20-something programmers and designers attempt to build the next big thing. Despite less than flattering accounts of Japan’s startup culture (or, rather, lack thereof), young entrepreneurs have flocked to Mov. Monthly memberships – which range from about US$200 for an unreserved lounge seat to over US$1,200 for a private booth – are sold out.

Japan is sometimes criticized for not having a home-grown Google or Facebook, but if the country ever does produce something of that scale, it will probably come from someone like the T-shirt and jeans-clad creatives who occupy Mov. Surely serial entrepreneur William Hiroyuki Saito hopes so – Mov is just one of more than 25 companies the Japanese-American computer whiz started, invested in, or helped in some direct capacity since launching his first computer software business at the age of 14.

Saito, a California native whose parents were born in Japan, spent his summers interning with some of Japan’s biggest tech firms during the glamor-and-glitz of the 1980s bubble era. Through those early connections, he was able to land contracts with the likes of Fujitsu, NEC, Sony, and Toshiba. After some youthful failures, Saito found his true calling in biometric security. He was named Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998.

After selling his company to Microsoft in 2004, he relocated to Japan with the goal of giving back to the next generation and reawakening Japan’s entrepreneurial spirit. He founded InTecur, a venture capital and technology consultancy firm, the following year. Since then, Saito has collected superlatives, university teaching posts, and seats on the boards of numerous foreign companies trying to establish themselves in the Japanese market and domestic companies hoping to expand globally. He was appointed as a special adviser to Prime Minister Abe’s cabinet in 2013 – a move that made him the country’s de facto “cyber czar,” among other things, as well as the English-speaking face of Abenomics.

Tech in Asia recently spoke with Mr. Saito about the state of Japan’s startup ecosystem, what’s holding it back, and how it can eventually thrive.

Are more young people in Japan passing on the big names and joining startups?

Saito: Well, it depends on where you look. The Mov co-working space is sold out and can’t take any new memberships, so that shows you the amount of interest and hunger for a place like that. Our foundation, IMPACT Japan Foundation (IJF), is also working with Tokyu Group to build the next generation building across the street, which will have four times as much space. IJF is also building our own building to support entrepreneurs in the Tohoku area in Sendai right now, to be completed by December.

In places that have had disasters, for example, people are more amenable to starting ventures. Historically, Japan has been that way. [Disaster] has been a catalyst for a lot of companies. If you look at Sony or Honda, these were postwar. Rakuten was after the Kobe earthquake. My bet here, for building this in the Tohoku area, is because there is a sense that things can’t fail any worse, that naturally you’d expect to see a lot of entrepreneurs coming from there.

Some of Japan’s biggest tech firms took a gamble on you when you were a teenager. I don’t see anything like that happening today. Why not?

Saito: I think corporations are more averse to failure now than during the bubble years. You have these salarymen that just go up the escalator with no real leadership experience, so they don’t want to go out on a limb necessarily – everyone was cost cutting – especially in a deflationary climate.

I really believe that there’s a one-for-one connection with the amount of drinking money a company spends and its stock price, because one of the last few venues where Japanese could truly communicate was [at the bar] after five o’clock, with beers. When you cut that budget, more people don’t communicate with each other, hence you see large companies having limited communication, becoming conservative and inward looking.

The ability to take risks and weather a few losses before you pick a winner has also greatly diminished. There’s something wrong when, since 1971, 11 industries in Japan have had no change in leadership. That could either be to the credit of strong Japanese companies or having no real competition – I think it’s the latter. You don’t see a replenishment of large companies by smaller companies, therefore these big companies just tend to degenerate over time.

Saito: People are so adverse to failure that they tell you you’d be crazy to start a company because if you fail you could lose your house and screw up your family – it’s pretty risky here.

Bankers are saying they need to change with Abenomics and the Olympics coming, they’re asking me what they can do. I’m telling them they’re part of the problem. These guys have venture arms that say they’re doing VC and I’m telling them that their VC stands for ‘very cowardly’ or ‘very conservative.’ You’re doing very little VC and then you’re asking them to collateralize – that’s not an investment. In my book that’s called a loan.

People fail, but they can’t declare failure or bankruptcy because their home would be taken away, so they just leave that as-is and in the meantime, to hold things together, they’re working the midnight shift at some menial job. It’s sad, so I told the industry banking association to change the way they do business. They need to figure out how to collateralize all those bad debts and then have these people work it off in terms of a new entrepreneurial venture.

Frankly, I only make investments in people who have failed because, if you look at all the famous companies in Japan – Sony, Hitachi, NEC, Honda – before they created these companies they had some other company before it that failed. I say that everybody has to fail once, that is why as in investment criteria I don’t invest unless they’ve failed because I know some will fail. If I know they’re going to fail to begin with, then I want them to fail with someone else’s money. Then I want to be the second investor, and it’s worked marvelously, because when Japanese fail, they feel really ashamed of it and really try to learn a lesson from it, and they know they can do it right if they have a second chance – but no one in this society gives them a second chance. So I do, and I’ve got a huge line outside my door.

What tech-related sectors are you watching and investing in and why?

Saito: Japan is the first country in history to experience both a shrinking and aging population simultaneously. Everything is upside down – right now it’s 3.3 children per adult that take care of the elderly. Those 3.3 people are having a tough time, they might have to take extended leave from work or quit outright. In 30 years that number could reach one-to-one. For that to work, a lot of things in society will have to change, and that’s going to rely on a lot of technology – whether it’s robotics or sensors or so on. I see a lot of developments in those areas.

But why is this important? Starting with Europe, Korea, China, and the US, in 13 to 16 years they’ll all be in the same exact boat. So Japan, a country that’s taking it on the chin right now, is probably going to figure it out. If it’s gonna happen anywhere, it is good that it’s happening here because we don’t throw our elderly out onto the streets. By the time we figure it out, the rest of the world will be in the same boat and, boy, will we be able to sell it.

All the investments that I make are with that assumption. Be it materials, robotics, batteries – you need all of these things to sustain an elderly population. It’s very important, now for Japan, but in 15 years for the rest of the world. And you know they’re gonna come over here and ask to sell them that technology.

You were raised bilingual. How important is being able to speak English for a Japanese entrepreneur?

Saito: It is mandatory that you know English, but the global language isn’t English – it’s broken English. Japanese are too stuck on trying to speak it perfectly when that’s not the point. People need to realize that communication is essential and unfortunately they don’t teach you communication in Japanese schools, they just teach you how to pass tests.

It’s not what you know or remember or memorize, it is why and how you apply that. That is lacking from Japanese education. The average Japanese person takes seven years of English classes, but I don’t know where that goes. I bring up this issue whenever I speak with the Ministry of Education.

You’re involved with the Code.org foundation. How has it been received in Japan?

Saito: There’s a big problem and that is figuring out who will we use as the spokesperson in Japan. If you look at Code.org commercials in the US, you have everyone from Steve Jobs to Gates to Mark Zuckerberg. Who would be the equivalent in Japan? You think about it really, really hard and there is no one. There is no prominent, distinguished programmer where people go ‘Whoa, I know that person, programming is cool.’ Not a single person. Is that sad or what?

A lot of your own work has been with biometrics. We’ve even got fingerprint scanners built into our phones now. Are we on the cusp of a biometrics boom?

Saito: All technologies are approaching a singularity. The smartphone you carry in your pocket is now more powerful than a supercomputer just 12 years ago. Your Playstation 3 is more powerful than the last Cray Supercomputer. It’s all just a function of processing speed to do this biometrics stuff.

At the [US] Department of Homeland Security, seven or eight years ago, we could do iris detection at 10 meters from someone running. Just imagine what we can do now. If you have sensors that can detect whether grandma’s in her room and alive, I can see various uses for that.

People also wonder how you can sell Japan’s safety and security ‘feeling.’ A home-grown security industry could package and sell that.

Will there ever be a “Silicon Valley of Asia” and can Japan create it?

Saito: Not to that extent and not in Japan, because it’s a direct function with the amount of diversity you have, the amount of open discussion, and the acceptance of failure. Even with the special economic zones and the changing of policies, you can’t just suddenly change diversity or lack thereof.

What’s amazing is that 40 percent of startups in Silicon Valley are done by Indians. I don’t see many Indians in Japan. Diversity is very, very important. The one and only biggest strength that the US has, the thing that makes it special, is diversity. It is the most diverse country on the planet. Unfortunately, Japan is the second-least diverse country on the planet.

We also lose 16 percent of the GDP by not utilizing women. Out of 19 investments I have, 15 are run by women. IRR-wise, they do about 20 percent better than the men. When companies ask me for help finding country managers, I almost always recommend women.

If diversity is the US’ greatest strength, what is Japan’s?

Saito: Because it is so homogeneous there is a certain expectation as far as level of education. Japan is the only country where if you go voting, you actually have to write the candidate’s name. This is an amazing feat because that assumes that the whole population can write.

You had a lot of success in the US. Why didn’t you stay in California?

Saito: Japan is my retirement. I felt like I should give back to all the Japanese companies that helped me get my start. But more importantly, knowing how to speak Japanese in the US is not useful, but knowing English in Japan is actually quite useful.

In a few years, Asia is going to represent 50 percent of the world’s GDP, so why not be here?

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/japaneseamerican-entrepreneur-william-saito-bet-failed/feed/0Meet Allen Silva, Philippines’ newest Dota 2 English casterhttps://www.techinasia.com/meet-allen-silva-philippines-newest-dota-2-english-caster/
https://www.techinasia.com/meet-allen-silva-philippines-newest-dota-2-english-caster/#commentsWed, 25 Jun 2014 08:00:08 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=166008In the Philippines, Dota 2 games are often cast in the Filipino language, which is why I was both excited and surprised to find out that the scene has a budding English Dota 2 caster: Allen “Lentropy” Silva. He recently made his debut cast at SMM Cyberslam and while he hasn’t immediately become a superstar, hearing an English cast from a Pinoy caster was definitely refreshing.

While he may be new to the Dota 2 casting scene, he’s definitely no stranger to casting in general. Interestingly, though, he gained his casting experience from an entirely different game genre—fighting games. I got a chance to sit down with him recently to ask about his experience.

It started out as me doing some on the spot shout-casting for a friend’s game booth at a few conventions. That friend of mine was actually working for SMM, [so] later on they asked me if I was interested in Dota 2 as well. And well, I jumped on the chance.

Was it difficult transitioning from fighting games to Dota 2?

It was! From two players to two teams! That’s a total of ten players each with unique traits like role, play style and resources! I also have to watch over an entire map versus having only to watch a screen. On top of that, there’s out-of-game details you should remember like player names and rules. It’s so easy to make errors because of the sheer amount of information you have to process, all while talking to entertain people.

How long have you been following the Dota 2 scene?

Let’s just say I started playing Warcraft III (WC3) Dota [at] version 6.18. As for the scene itself, I got involved when I heard [about] an ominous event called The International 2012 (TI2). I watched the live stream, then I looked for the first International. And then The Defense. Then before I knew it, I had been spending a week watching Dota2 VODs. As you might guess I still watch VODs, or at least listen to them while at work.

Do you look up to any Dota 2 caster?

At one point, I realized I didn’t watch Dota 2 matches simply because of the teams, I watched it because of the rather impressive casting from Toby “Tobi Wan” Dawson. He just got me caring about everything in a game that would have me bored otherwise.

Apart from that I also enjoy Aaron “Ayesee” Chambers who adds interesting color to his casting, like the moment when Alliance finally lost a game in The International 2013 (TI3). He shouted “Even Gods can bleed!” and it just really gets you into the moment.

Also, recently the more casual Shannon “Sunsfan” Scotten keeps things light and fun, which pairs up with the calm analysis from Troels “SyndereN” Nielsen; their contrast complements each other really well.

Do you see yourself casting full time?

I really want to answer ‘yes,’ but with the way the local industry is right now it’ll have to stay on weekends and sometimes after work. Events that I can cast in are few and far between, and the pay isn’t really all that great. But hey, who knows? It’s still growing, maybe that answer will come to change in a few years.

Recently, you’ve been setting up your stream. What’s the most challenging part of it?

The tech took me a few days to figure out, especially about managing sounds. Thankfully, my CPU can handle the process while running games. But that doesn’t solve the real problem.

Simply put, on a 3 Mbps connection, I can’t maintain a decent upload stream with Twitch, whose closest server is in Singapore. It would be more ideal to have a stream channel locally hosted here in PH. But I’m thinking long-term here.

I can’t really think of a more specific solution regarding the upload problem so for now, I might go with making YouTube content instead. Maybe interesting VODs or stuff that I think may be good to feature, like a unique gameplay guide for Dota 2.

Why did you choose English casting over Tagalog casting for Dota 2?

I chose English because first and foremost I think the Philippine scene isn’t really a great market to drive sales from, but it is excellent for generating content with. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we [could] generate content that’s internationally viable?

Second, during The International 2014 (TI4) SEA qualifiers, the famous-infamous recap video of Pinoy casters showed a very split response from the online community. I was already slated to be an English caster by then but I really saw that there was this other potential audience that was totally not being addressed. The current casters are great at doing their job but they’re not making everyone happy. It’s like how some people just prefer spicy food and others don’t. In a sense, I want to grow and improve the scene by providing more variation in content.

What are the difficulties you’ve experienced while casting in English during SMM Cyberslam?

The organizers told me that they were happy and so were the sponsors and that’s great. However, I’ve heard that people were hating and trolling the stream while I was on especially when they were looking for Mineski casters. That’s fine though, since it’s the typical resistance to change.

Plus, when I thought about it, they were Mineski’s audience, not mine. I still have a long way to go before I can go on saying I have an audience though. I mean, I’ve had what, two gigs [for Dota 2] this year?

Do you think the Philippine community is ready for an English caster? Is there a place for an English caster in the Philippine eSports industry?

The short answer to your first question is no, not yet. But yeah it actually depends. If organizers are looking for English casters just to impress sponsors, probably not. If there’s a clear attempt to invite and involve more people towards the community, then it’ll work out.

Unfortunately, in the Philippine culture, there will always be those who will be intimidated and, to a more extreme point, insulted by somebody speaking in fluent English. So if we try to force that down their throat, it won’t work out. There’s still that part of the market that’s happier to hear English casting though, and that’s what I’m looking to work on.

As for your second question, the short answer is yes. Hopefully though it won’t be limited to impressing sponsors.

What are the advantages of having more English casters in the Philippines? What about disadvantages?

Being able to feature our content to more people is what really shines on the advantage list. It might make some teams think of visiting our country to scrim and compete if they’re able to view and consume our VODs and whatnot. That’s like all sorts of awesome no matter how you put it. It might be the missing piece of our eSports puzzle to making our local teams perform better internationally.

The clear disadvantage is how this could lead the community to get divided, as some parts of our community are pretty attached to the colloquial method of casting. Alienating people away from the industry is the last thing we want to happen, so I have to stress the importance of local Filipino casters being around adjacent to international and English casters. They shouldn’t try to compete or overlap. Instead, they should work on the audience they’ve defined for themselves.

Will you be focusing on Dota 2 from now on or are you open to casting other titles and genres as well? If so, what genres or titles are you looking at?

Dota 2 is my ideal focus, but while I’m not really on events all that often, I don’t mind casting for other games if people invite me to. League of Legends is in the list because organizers seem really amicable to the idea. The audience is much larger too, so why not? TNC did ask me about Dragon Nest, which I played solo before. So I’m open to that idea.

Of course, there’s fighting games as well since that’s where I started. BlazBlue, SF4 and UMVC3 are definitely in the pool. Though I think the fighting game communities have English casters covered already.

What’s next for you?

E-Sports and Gaming Summit (ESGS)! That’s a while away though, so I’ll try to look for things to do in the time being. I’m still on the “let’s make the scene better” drive so I want to find more opportunities to put content out there as well as be a positive influence on the scene, which may be quite the uphill climb. But well, somebody’s gotta do it!

While Silva doesn’t have a YouTube channel of his own yet, you can find replays of his streams and casts here. His most recent cast was the MSI Beat It! RGN League Indonesian qualifiers for Dota 2. You can also reach him on Twitter and on his recently-created Facebook page.

More on other Asian casters

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/meet-allen-silva-philippines-newest-dota-2-english-caster/feed/0How two guys from radio built India's most exciting indie game studiohttps://www.techinasia.com/how-two-guys-from-radio-built-indias-most-exciting-indie-game-studio/
https://www.techinasia.com/how-two-guys-from-radio-built-indias-most-exciting-indie-game-studio/#commentsTue, 24 Jun 2014 08:30:01 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=165832Supersike Games is what happens when two radio industry veterans decide to make video games. Known for a creatively diverse portfolio that includes, Yet Another Bird Game (runner-up of Square Enix’s game development competition for India), the drug trading game Go Kane and its latest effort, Catcher in the Sky, this is one studio that doesn’t shy away from experimentation.

I caught up with co-founder Amit Goyal to pick his brain on what we can expect from Supersike next, how the company came to be, and what it takes to be an independent developer in India.

No experience is the best experience

India’s games industry is thriving. And Goyal admits new independent studios are coming up by the day even though as a whole, the industry still has to find its feet.

Most independent studios in the country are either old hands venturing out on their own or freshly minted students out of game schools such as DSK. Which makes Supersike’s tale all the more interesting. They’re the exception to the rule. He tells me why Supersike came to be:

We did not have any background in gaming. Both of us were in radio. Even if we wanted to get jobs, who would give us jobs in gaming? So we decided to start our own thing and learn it as we go along.

This is a rather ballsy approach and it hasn’t been smooth sailing. Most Indians wouldn’t consider trading in a steady income and job security for the unknown. But Supersike has stuck around for two years already without any funding aside from family and friends. The impetus to go independent was further fuelled by the desire to make some respectable original Indian IP.

Outsourcing versus originality

“We wanted to get into the space and start making stuff that’s appreciated globally and is from India. This extends to the design aspect and not just the outsourcing bit that India is known for.”

The “outsourcing bit” Goyal refers to is the mainstay of Indian game development. Companies like Dhruva, Lakshya, Technicolor and others employ a massive number of artists in order to create assets for global studios such as Microsoft, Konami and Rockstar. It’s what India is known for in game development circles, rather than original IP.

But that all is changing. “There were over 15 Indian studios at Casual Connect showing content that everyone was appreciative of. Some of the young guys have also won awards for their work.”, he says. The same mentality applies to Supersike, “We don’t want to get away from original IP. Once you get into the contract space it’s tough to get away from it.”
[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrIz5on3qpM[/fve]

The great Indian talent hunt

Unlike India’s well-known IT sector, its games industry is relatively low-key. Getting in top-notch talent is still a major concern. After all, why would the best developers gravitate towards a field that doesn’t pay as well as other tech fields? Goyal opines that while talent is in abundance, it’s the mindset that matters the most:

It’s not hard to find a good programmer or a good artist but the problem is that in order to make games you need a certain kind of mindset to do it. You need a lot of self-motivation and initiative. Finding such people can be a challenge for us.

And he would know. From a two man studio in 2012, Supersike has now expanded to three men. Yes, finding the right fit for one new hire has taken them over two years. Hiring is an issue even in a land of over a billion people.

Fresh ideas

Joining the games industry as complete newbies comes a steep learning curve. Rookie mistakes that other, more established organizations in the business would have shrugged off were a part of Supersike’s growing pains. However Goyal remains optimistic,”I won’t say we’ve hit the top of our game yet but we’re getting there.”

One advantage coming from another space altogether is the bevy of fresh ideas that the studio is able to come up with. This comes from the freedom to experiment and not being burdened by a studio culture and thought processes that most industry veterans are bogged down by. Since everyone at Supersike plays video games across platforms, they’re never far away from a concept that’s worth bothering with. Take Go Kane for example. Goyal told me that it was inspired by the most unlikely of GTA games:

In GTA: Chinatown Wars there are side-missions that let you trade drugs. We’d find that very addictive. To the point where I’d leave main missions and do those instead. We wanted to make a game to capture the joy of scoring a big deal and that’s how Go Kane was born.The idea was to have two controls in the entire game, you either take or leave the deal.

A screenshot from Supersike’s sophomore effort, Go Kane.

Discipline

But it isn’t just clutter-breaking ideas that interest Supersike. The company knows that it has a long way to go, and a good idea is just the beginning. There’s a kind of honesty in Goyal’s voice that’s a far cry from most indies in the country who adopt a different tack altogether:

It’s great to chase a cool concept but it has to be bigger than that. I mean, you’re making a game development studio, what is it going to stand for? How do you see yourself in 5 years? How do you see yourself in 10 years? That focus needs to be there. And it only comes with adherence to timelines and goal-oriented behaviour. It’s been a learning [experience] for us. And especially for guys like us, everyday in the industry is a learning experience.

It’s this kind of long-term thinking and awareness that sets Supersike apart. There’s an almost obsessive focus on polish. He states that Indian studios such as his own need to improve on it and that people are only sold on a game when everything works perfectly.

What next?

Speaking of polish, Goyal lets it slip that they’re taking an experimental approach towards it with a new game entitled Reign:

Reign is a small game we’re working on right now. It’s a super casual game that we should finish in a month and a half. The idea is to keep it very simple but polished well enough that it should match up to anything.

This aside, they’re hard at work with Catcher in the Sky and a massive update to Go Kane wherein gameplay systems have been tweaked as per user feedback. Purists need not worry, this drug trading game is not losing out on any of its content. According to Goyal, Supersike could have toned it down for the App Store but it wouldn’t make sense without it. It had to be edgy.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/blizzard-michael-chu-reaper-of-souls-video/feed/0LGD.Yao: “Every decision we’ve made is to prepare for The International”https://www.techinasia.com/lgd-yao-every-decision-weve-made-is-to-prepare-for-the-international/
https://www.techinasia.com/lgd-yao-every-decision-weve-made-is-to-prepare-for-the-international/#commentsWed, 26 Mar 2014 01:00:56 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=158700As one of China’s biggest Dota 2 teams, LGD is a team that was hit rather hard by the great Chinese reshuffles after The International 2013 (TI3). Falling from being the second-strongest Chinese team during The International 2012 (TI2), LGD has been struggling to regain its dominant form.

I got a chance to interview LGD’s captain Yao ‘Yao’ Zhengzheng about the current state of the team, their plans for The International 2014, and his thoughts on aspiring pro players.

LGD’s roster changes

After The International 2013 (TI3), the Chinese scene had been shaken by two major reshuffles and LGD was hit both times. Liu ‘Sylar’ Jiajun left their team shortly after TI3 and was replaced by Wang ‘xiaotuji’ Zhang, who also goes by the game handle ‘Rabbit’. After Chinese New Year, LGD’s former captain Zhang ‘xiao8′ Ning left to join Team Newbee.

Xiao8’s departure brought bigger changes to LGD. First, they signed Yao ‘Maybe’ Lu to play solo mid and assigned Yao ‘Yao’ Zhengzheng as captain. However, this roster lasted only for a month and LGD replaced Maybe with Peng ‘Icy’ Wang. Yao was moved to the solo mid role and Icy played offlane. What caused the replacement? According to Yao, it wasn’t a matter of potential, but was more of player experience and team synchronization.

Maybe is a competitor with a lot of potential, and his skills [mechanics] are excellent, but in recent matches and training, he wasn’t able to harmonize with the rest of the team very well. Also, for a new player, the intensity of this [pro eSports] environment might be a bit much, and the pressure was stifling him, which is not good for his development. So after comprehensive consideration we decided to move Maybe into training and development. But he is still the future of LGD. Icy is a veteran, but he’s still pushing hard to get better; that’s the reason we brought him onboard.

Although the two of them play different roles, this recent change will most likely affect LGD’s play style as well. According to Yao, Maybe played a more passive style of laning and farming while Icy is more of an aggressive ganker. “[With Icy,] our team will be more aggressive,” he said.

Whether or not the roster change was for the better will only be evident after the team has played more official matches. In this light, Yao noted that the new LGD roster will be entering a breaking-in period and he mentioned that bad performances will come up from time-to-time. “The breaking-in period after changing a member will always be a low point,” Yao told me, “so there must be mutual trust among the team and everyone needs to work hard to collectively build a positive and hardworking team atmosphere.”

To accomplish this, aside from training every day, LGD also goes out together to eat and watch movies. Their coach Zou ‘820’ Yitian also helps not only in training, but also in building team spirit. On the other hand, Yao’s job as a captain is to unify the team and discuss strategies with them.

According to Yao, assuming the captain role has forced him to think more about his teammates and see the game’s bigger picture from a different angle. “Before [I became captain],” he says, “I spent more time studying tactics for my own position, thinking about how to improve myself, but now I have much heavier responsibilities, and need to think more about my teammates.”

The road to The International 2014

Roster stability is one of the factors to be considered if the team is looking to receive an invite for The International 2014. In fact, last year, LGD.cn’s direct invite was revoked after the team made changes to its roster. Its slot was given to TongFu and LGD.cn attended The International 2013 (TI3) by winning the qualifiers instead.

This year, with TI4 approaching, most teams are looking to stabilize their roster and their performance in hopes of getting a direct invite. With consecutive roster changes, I asked if they are worried that this would affect their chances of getting a direct invite, but Yao was very optimistic about this.

I don’t think it will have any impact; every decision we’ve made is to prepare for TI. Although the domestic and international competition is quite fierce, LGD has always had a very competitive team, and my teammates and I will work tirelessly to get to the championship and realize our dream.

During The International 2012 (TI2), LGD flawlessly dominated the group stages and eventually finished third with Invictus Gaming (iG) and Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) taking first and second places respectively. The Chinese domination from TI2, however did not last until TI3 where former top two Chinese teams iG and LGD dropped to the fifth and ninth places respectively.

TI3 was a rough time for China, but Yao is positive that China will be heading to TI4 stronger than they did last year. In fact, he is looking forward to the upcoming WPC-ACE where LGD can face off against foreign teams. WPC-ACE will begin on March 29 and will be ending around June.

Some have suggested that having other events scheduled so close to TI4 may stress the players and affect their performance. This is particularly true for Western teams, which will be participating in multiple major eSports events. But will this also be the case for China? According to Yao:

No, quite the opposite. We think WPC-ACE will make Chinese teams better prepared for TI4; with European, American, and SEA teams participating, WPC-ACE is already one of the best competitions.

On aspiring pro-players

One reason why the Chinese scene was hit rather hard by the reshuffles was because the player pool wasn’t big enough. Compared to the West, China has fewer new players entering the scene, which made it difficult to find new talent. However, the emergence of CIS and Dream Time (DT) made it clear that China isn’t out of talent just yet. When I asked Yao what advice he could give for aspiring pro players, he said,

Play more, watch more, think more. Play so that you can operate [your hero] comfortably, watch matches and VODs to study pro players’ support. Get into their mindset, their gank rhythms, team fighting opportunities and find out their goals. Reflect and draw conclusions, and then play the game to put it into practice.

This industry is developing fast and the future looks bright. If you want to be a pro gamer, you need a lot of passion, innate skill, and the ability to cooperate with your team.

Gameplay-wise, he also advised on trying a variety of roles:

For amateur players, I think they should try to sample a variety of different roles, only then will they be able to determine their position and experience the fun of Dota. I think only playing one role if you’re not worried about professional competitions would probably be really boring.

With about four months to go before The International 2014, LGD has a lot to work on. It is still too early to determine if the new roster will be able to synchronize and adapt in time for the big events. Based on their recent performances, LGD need to throw in a bit of unpredictability and aggression, as playing safe won’t always secure victories. This is particularly true against top teams such as Team DK, Vici Gaming, Na’Vi, and Alliance who are capable of making amazing comebacks if given the slightest opening.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/lgd-yao-every-decision-weve-made-is-to-prepare-for-the-international/feed/0An interview with the modder who turned GTA IV's Liberty City into a Chinese metropolishttps://www.techinasia.com/an-interview-with-the-modder-who-turned-gta-ivs-liberty-city-into-a-chinese-metropolis/
https://www.techinasia.com/an-interview-with-the-modder-who-turned-gta-ivs-liberty-city-into-a-chinese-metropolis/#commentsFri, 21 Mar 2014 01:00:59 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=158511Yesterday, we wrote about a very cool new GTA IV mod, created by Chinese modder “Teacher Cui”, that turned parts of Grand Theft Auto IV‘s Liberty City into a typical Chinese city by replacing many of the game’s signs and billboards. There are tons of screenshots in our original post, but you can check out a quick video of the mod in action below:

Games in Asia was able to get in touch with “Teacher Cui” and talk to him a bit about this clever mod. Although it doesn’t cover the entire GTA IV map—only around 1/4 of it—Cui says it has taken him quite a long time to put together.

Aside from some help from a team pasting the road signs and banners in the China Style mod, it was all done by me, including all the testing. As for how long it took in total, all I can tell you is that every door, window, and advertisement took quite a bit of energy. Just finding a [real-life] window that suited the in-game shop might take an hour.

That’s because Cui says that while some of the signs and ads in the mod were taken from images he found online, many were taken from photos Cui himself took in his home city (he didn’t say which). So, in addition to the hours spend replacing the game’s original signs with his own, he also spend hours traipsing around the city looking for suitable signs, posters, billboards, and banners to put in the game.

Why go to all this trouble?

I think that in a game like GTA IV, it feels more real to those who live in New York City than it does to us, because it has that local flavor and it’s similar to the real-life environment around you. Why would we Chinese people not also want to experience a free game world in a virtual Chinese city? So I took this opportunity and came up with the idea to create a [game] world with Chinese characteristics.

Of course, he also did it because he’s a GTA fan.

Since the mod’s release, Cui says he has been pleasantly surprised by the interest in downloading the mod, and the praise it has received. Of course, there have also been complaints, and the mod’s detractors often harp on the fact that Chinese ads and signs look a bit out of place on the “Western-style architecture” of GTA‘s New York. But Cui says replacing the buildings themselves would simply be too time-consuming for him to consider.

So what’s next for the enterprising modder? Further expansion into GTA IV, he says, including into the suburbs.

Because the city and suburban locations are different, I’m going to change the style of the advertisements I put in. For example, the suburban areas will get more of a rural feel, and the more developed [downtown] areas will get more brand-name product advertisements.

And his ambitions don’t end there. GTA V still isn’t available for PC, but if it does get ported, Cui says he’ll start modding that game, too. “A China-style GTA V has been in my plans since last year,” he told me.

Related:

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/an-interview-with-the-modder-who-turned-gta-ivs-liberty-city-into-a-chinese-metropolis/feed/0From the other side of the fence: one developer's thoughts on in-app-purchaseshttps://www.techinasia.com/from-the-other-side-of-the-fence-one-developers-thoughts-on-in-app-purchases/
https://www.techinasia.com/from-the-other-side-of-the-fence-one-developers-thoughts-on-in-app-purchases/#commentsTue, 31 Dec 2013 02:00:11 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=151635A recent post by Games in Asia editor Charlie Custer sparked a debate within our community about the pros and cons of in-app-purchases (IAP). IAP is everywhere these days and is used by different companies in different ways to monetize games. They are especially prevalent in South-East Asia and China, where free-to-play has become the norm for both mobile and PC gaming.

IAP can take a variety of forms, from the opening up of new levels to hats for your favorite characters. However, IAP is also being used to monetize games in ways that many gamers feel is detrimental to the community, such as limiting a game’s playability or making the game impossible without the purchase of certain items. I recently had a conversation with Don Sim, the CEO of Daylight Studios, creators of Conquest Age, on the subject of IAP. Whilst I don’t agree with all that was said, it is certainly interesting to get the view from the other side of the fence.

Special thanks to day light studios for lending me their CEO for the morning!

Finding a balance

I asked Don about how his company balances the need to make money through IAPs with the need to create a game that’s enjoyable for players. It is extremely important for you to entertain and cater to people who don’t buy IAP because they make up 95-97% of gamers, he told me. If you can’t attract gamers who don’t want to pay, then your game is going to suffer. Balancing the gaming experience between people who will and won’t play is an art that no one has perfected, Don says, but first you need a game that people want to play and that can be improved upon by purchasing certain items.

Of course, you don’t want to make your game unplayable without purchases, he told me, at least not for extended periods of time. But you also don’t want the IAP to be so inconsequential that no one buys it. It’s a tough balance to strike, Don points to his studio’s game Conquest Age as an example of a game that’s enjoyable without IAP but still offers something of value to players who do make purchases.

Though Conquest Age does use IAP the developers hope it adds to rather than detracts from the experience.

Debating the stamina system

I asked Don for his thoughts on Charlie’s article about stamina/energy, and how that plays into the IAP debate. His response: “I honestly don’t believe that this feature is the main method of monetizing for these types of games.”.

Don argues that few users are going to keep spending money on something that regenerates automatically — gamers aren’t that impatient — and games with stamina systems are instead mostly monetized via other IAPs.

So why bother with a stamina system, then? Don says it’s a way of limiting how often (and for how long) users can play a game, and steering them towards other parts of the game. Again using Conquest Age as an example, Daylight Studios decided to limit the number of times players can attack because they didn’t want the game to revolve exclusively around attacking. They wanted players to experience all aspects of the game, and this feature pushes them to do that. Attacking is just one way to interact with the world they created.

More importantly, Don says, stamina systems also make the player take full advantage of limited opportunities because if the gamer only has a set number of chances then they are going to prepare, they are going to get the best equipment and items, and they are going to make the most successful attempt possible. Sure, stamina/energy does help Daylight Studios monetize, but it also plays a key role in how the gamer experiences the game, and according to Don that is all part of the design.

Using the same example game as Charlie’s article‘s, TianTian KuPao, Don argued that the goal of the stamina system was not to monetize players’ frustration. Instead, it’s a way of preventing gamers from binging and burning out on relatively simple games. TianTian KuPao is fast-paced, exciting and designed to push the player hard so if they were allowed to play the game repeatedly for hours at a time, Don argues, they would sicken themselves and the experience would be over much faster. By slowing the player down, the game actually improves the player’s overall experience.

The limitations imposed by TianTian KuPao where an irritation in a game which otherwise would have been a delight to play.

IAP as the means or as the ends?

Personally though, I’m still skeptical that certain IAP is damaging game design by encouraging developers to design games based on selling in-game items effectively rather than to design games based on what’s fun.

Don was very clear that; “A game should always be well thought out and well designed and effort should be put into making it a good experience.” However, he acknowledged that “there are always going to be companies who will milk their IPs,” and he couldn’t condemn that. Don argued that a popular IP being used in a simple game with high price IAP is still a form of entertainment, and that we have to trust gamers to be discerning in what they spend their money on. Not everything appeals to everyone and what doesn’t appeal to me or my readers might appeal to someone else.

“However as a game developer I [personally] would not want to do something like that,” Don says. He’s firm that “money is often not the main motivator” and it is definitely not why he got in to developing games. But developers do have to make money and IAP allows them a lot more flexibility in how they deliver games to gamers than the pay-upfront model, even if it hasn’t been perfected yet.

Full disclosure: Don Sim’s company has business connections to Game in Asia’s parent company Tech in Asia and he has personal connections with another member (not me) of the Games in Asia staff. However, this was our first conversation, and the relevant parties connected to Don’s company did not see or edit this post before publication.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/from-the-other-side-of-the-fence-one-developers-thoughts-on-in-app-purchases/feed/0Want to be a professional shoutcaster? In Southeast Asia, it’s not as far away as it seemshttps://www.techinasia.com/professional-shoutcaster-southeast-asia-gpl-chris-wolf/
https://www.techinasia.com/professional-shoutcaster-southeast-asia-gpl-chris-wolf/#commentsTue, 10 Dec 2013 06:00:17 +0000http://www.gamesinasia.com/?p=150896For many young gamers in Asia, working in eSports is something to aspire to. Some crave the fame and fortune of being a professional player; others dream of organizing leagues, minding teams, or even running tournaments on the ground.

But for the majority of Asia, and Southeast Asia in particular (we’re not counting the South Koreans and the Chinese because those two countries are a class apart), opportunities for careers in eSports are few and far between. Sometimes you just aren’t given the chance, and sometimes you don’t know where to start.

Sometimes, though, you get lucky.

Donovan ‘Wolf’ Foo and Chris Lim are 22-year-old Singaporeans who cast for the Garena Premier League (GPL). The university students have had no prior professional shoutcasting training or experience, but now take turns featuring in each week’s GPL matches.

How did they get a chance to do this? Sheer luck. The GPL used to be helmed by one full-time shoutcaster and three other part timers; one of the latter going on holiday led to a gap in the schedule, and when the full-timer called it quits, Lim — who was friends with one of the part time casters — came highly recommended. Later, when opportunity reared itself, he took the chance to pull Foo into the fracas as well. So if you’re looking to become a shoutcaster yourself, the best thing you can do is get involved and start meeting people in the scene. You never know who might give you your first foot in the door.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMFHviY8K9A[/youtube]

It’s not all fun and games as you might expect, though. ESports, and casting by extension, is serious business. Each session lasts five hours, with only short five-to-ten minute breaks in between, making the casters’ part-time gig as grueling as a full-time one, especially when they have to cover for each other owing to scheduling conflicts.

There is also no direction coming from Garena, meaning each show’s direction and content is entirely the onus of the casters. Every production has an average of just two crew members on the production end. Foo theorized the lack of direction could be due to Garena’s lack of expertise in directing talent, and a lack of time on its part, but added that “there are signs [Garena] wants to be more engaged.” Still, the shoutcasters are “quite independent when it comes to research and content,” Foo said, adding that Lim and himself were also now confident enough to hold their own in productions.

Of course, the casters are adequately compensated for their pains. While — as with all creative jobs — aspiring shoutcasters sometimes have to work for free to cement their reputations, Lim and Foo are lucky enough to be paid per match, and to be paid “very very decently for a part-time job in Singapore”. Additional perks include a staff discount at the Garena store and a 30% discount at the Garena Cafe.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kl0K_HNVLo[/youtube]

On top of that, both Lim and Foo feel that the GPL gives them the “opportunity to cast in high production value shows,” and getting practice casting games with high levels of play is definitely a perk. Shoutcasting for Garena also helped Lim with his public speaking: “Before I started, I never thought that I could do well on camera,” he said, adding that he is now also motivated to work harder in his present endeavours at work and school.

Both Lim and Foo are young, and as with most of us, they’re not sure where life is going to take them. Foo is planning to apply for an internship with Riot Games, while Lim will have a work placement in Las Vegas in a couple of years. One thing they do know for sure, though, is that they’re going to continue shoutcasting the GPL for as long as they can.

To describe Ben Chew as a busy man is an understatement. The co-founder of Startup Jobs Asia and current managing director of Strategia Ventures has a broad spectrum of business interests: he’s a business owner, entrepreneur, and angel investor.

A graduate of Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a diploma in electronic and computer engineering, Ben is also a Chartered Certified Accountant and Certified Accounting Technician.

After stints in accounting and the sale of accounting IT solutions, he kicked off his entrepreneurial journey with TBC HR Consulting in March 2000. In December 2012, he incorporated Startup Jobs Asia and Strategia Ventures.

Startup Jobs Asia is a jobs and HR platform serving multiple Asian nations, while Strategia Ventures is an equities trading and investment holdings firm that acts as a private co-investment fund with venture capitalists, working with them and matching their funding in early investment rounds.

We caught up with him to learn more about his journey and current plans.

Where and when did you get your start in entrepreneurship?

I actually started by doing recruitment as a freelancer for an HR company in Singapore. I worked on a commission basis for them. However, as I saw no support for long-term operations in the firm, I felt that I could do better. So from 2000, I started TBC HR Consulting. TBC stands for ‘Thinking Believing Connecting’.

How did you get involved in founding Startup Jobs Asia?

I happened to meet Grace Chng, a senior editor at the Straits Times, who knew about my recruiting background and is quite interested in the startup scene. She asked me what could be done to help the startup ecosystem here, since many startups face challenges in talent acquisition.The thing is that recruitment consulting has some very high fees and can burn startups. It’s not sustainable nor advisable for a startup to engage in that sort of exercise. So I ended up developing Startup Jobs Asia. I wanted it to act as an HR portal, to ‘sexify’ jobs in startups.

When I was doing angel investing in a personal capacity, a lot of of company founders approached me about talent acquisition. The majority of jobseekers tend to join larger MNCs and want jobs in banks and other financial services. I made the decision to establish Startup Jobs Asia as I realized it was also the easiest and fastest way to boost the local startup ecosystem. Currently, Startup Jobs Asia has no full-time staff under a payroll.

Where does Strategia come in?

Strategia Ventures’ role is to finance Startup Jobs Asia. Right now, Startup Jobs Asia has very low costs. It also serves as a co-investment partner for VCs. We work with them by sharing deals and other information as well as investing with them in different funding rounds. We currently don’t have the staff to carry out the due diligence and other work that VCs engage in.

What are the future directions you foresee for Strategia Ventures and Startup Jobs Asia?

For Strategia, we’re interested in maintaining and boosting the startup ecosystem here. It’s looking to invest in B2B, HR and recruitment options. As for Startup Jobs Asia, we’ve facilitated about 35 successful hirings to date for Singapore-based startups. We’ve also seen some success in Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan – where they hired someone for expansion in China through us.

As long as there is traction, we’ll seek to make partnerships with parties in overseas markets to strengthen our overseas positioning. So it’s basically about growing traction in Singapore and overseas.

Are there plans to enter any specific foreign markets?

Strategia is looking at Vietnam with great interest. As for Startup Jobs Asia, we intend to grow our traction in Singapore and make Startup Jobs the voice for hires within Asia through continuing our partnering strategy.

Are there any particular areas you’re interested to invest in?

Strategia is basically looking at HR, recruitment, B2B and possibly mergers and acquisitions, if it adds synergy to our current portfolio. These are currently the niche areas for us. If it’s B2C, we won’t look at Singapore but at locations overseas with larger domestic markets, such as India, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand.

To date, which do you feel are the most promising investments made by Strategia Ventures?

We haven’t had any investments in our portfolio that have exited or entered either Series A or B of funding rounds.

What are some of your considerations as an investor when evaluating a startup?

Well, I’d be looking at the people. I’ll be evaluating the founders and the management team. Having the right talent is critical. Similarly, I’d look at whether the idea is both scalable and sustainable.

In what ways can the startup ecosystem in Singapore be improved, in order to compete with other global startup ecosystems?

In a nutshell, it’s the ability to open doors to foreign talent to come to work for startups in Singapore. We’ve also got a small population of five million, and only a very small minority of the workforce is open to riskier employment in early-stage startups. So when scaling, startups eventually need to hire talent in order to manage the escalation. In general, funding is sufficient given the recent government move to inject cash into the ecosystem.

What we really need is to liberalize the talent inflow and maintain an open and balanced immigration policy. In my opinion, policymakers need to realize that a robust, balanced and open approach is necessary to bring in talent, especially for startups. Even established MNCs and SMEs are facing the same problems. It’s just that startups have the added disadvantage of being less able to compete for talent due to limited resources. Even MNCs and SMEs are frustrated by the tightened labor laws.

What do you foresee happening in the startup ecosystem in Singapore within the next five years?

I think we’ll see more success stories and more exits.There’s a growing awareness of the startup ecosystem. If we have more of those, the general workforce will be more willing to risk joining a local startup. The trend over the last six months has been more exits, like Viki. More exits tend to attract more talent to work for startups. When I first started Startup Jobs Asia, I didn’t expect the response I’m seeing now. I thought maybe 0.5% of the workforce would be willing. But now, I’d put that figure at 1%-2%.

Whats your opinion of the government injecting public funds into the startup ecosystem here?

I think that the government direction is to grow local enterprises that generates jobs. However, there isn’t the right balance of successful SMEs emerging from startups to show an equivalent balance of the public money being invested.

Do you see the HR situation improving and more local recruitment?
Not really. We’ll just have to cope.The situation won’t change with current labor laws, and it will be the same for the next one to two years unless there’s a change in policies. Founders and business owners will just have to come up with measures to cope with the situation and get the talent they want.

As an entrepreneur, what has been your greatest challenges?

Seven to eight years ago, when my business was growing, I found it difficult to balance profitability growth with maintaining good cashflow.This was back when funding options available now weren’t present. The other one is attracting and retaining good talent.

What would you consider satisfying moments as an entrepreneur and investor?

I’d say that it’s growing my business year-by-year and reaching new ground in ventures such as Startup Jobs Asia.

What is your advice as an entrepreneur and angel investor to people who are about to embark on the journey?

Believe in your convictions and be very persistent from an early stage, because that’s the toughest part. Also, get the right people on board with you. There’s a tagline that I like to use: “Hire the right talent for the right job at the right time”.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/angel-investor-singapore-liberalize-talent-inflow-maintain-open-balanced-immigration-policy/feed/0App Annie CEO Bertrand Schmitt on starting up in China, scaling, and new fundinghttps://www.techinasia.com/app-annie-ceo-bertrand-schmitt-interview/
https://www.techinasia.com/app-annie-ceo-bertrand-schmitt-interview/#commentsWed, 23 Oct 2013 08:48:58 +0000https://www.techinasia.com/?p=150137Matthieu David is founder and CEO of Daxue China Market Research, a China-based market research firm focusing on China. Matthieu has been living in China (Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai) for close to six years, working in finance, startups, and market research companies. Find him on Twitter as @DaxueConsulting or on LinkedIn.

Tech in Asia has covered App Annie pretty extensively on its journey, product, and funding news. For those who are unfamiliar, App Annie is a data analytics tool for game and app developers that was launched as a free service in 2010. The company was founded in 2011 by Bertrand Schmitt. It provides three main services, including analytics, store stats, and business intelligence. These products provide publishers with data on downloads, rankings, revenue, reviews, and more, to help them learn about the performance of their own and competitors’ apps. App Annie recently raised $15 million with Sequoia Capital as lead investor, for a total of $22 million raised from the start.

In my recent interview with Bertrand, he discussed what it is like to start a tech company in China and spoke about his firm’s last fundraising efforts.

What are you going to do with this funding?

Bertrand: One side is expanding our sales and marketing presence globally, country by country. We have already expanded in a few countries and we want to expand in a few more cities. This expansion is really sales, customer support, as well as marketing. And really to keep working on new products. So we are working on quite a few new products but we stay very close to what we have been doing in the sense that we don’t plan on becoming anything else than a data provider, a market data provider. So we always focus on data about your own apps and other people’s apps as well as the industry trends.
We already support in some ways different platforms like not just the mobile, Google Play and iOS. We support Mac, and the Windows store. It’s not just mobile apps.

So it’s tablets and mobile devices?

Bertrand: It’s smartphones, tablets, and PC/Mac. And the Windows store, it’s the Windows store you get with Windows 8.

So we see ourselves at the center of a new revolution in how you distribute content. Mobile apps and iOS were really the first distribution channels for mobile content. Actually, you could argue that it was iTunes that really started this. I think, surprisingly, not enough people followed this model fast enough, and I think step by step it’s overtaking the industry. You don’t distribute anymore through web sites, but through an app store. It’s providing new discovery, providing new distribution, providing new monetization and I think this is key. We care about how you distribute content. Our focus again is to provide great market data.

These new platforms are really international, so I think that is a big difference. In the past, if you are looking at content, if you wanted to know music sales in France, you had to go to GFK for instance, but if you wanted that in the US you had to go to NPD. Every region or country had its own specific providers because all of the retail channels were very different. Now the retail channels are Apple’s App Store, Google Play, Amazon AppStore, and Microsoft. So it’s really global platforms.

Why do you feel China is good for when you start a business? Is it a good country to start an online business? Where do you think is the best country to start in?

Bertrand: At least for a business-to-business (B2B) operation, it is relatively easy to start from anywhere, as B2B customers are not so different from country to country. For us, we started in China but are focused on the global market. If you start your business in Finland or in Israel, it’s a small country and you are forced to go outside. Being started by foreigners in China, App Annie was in the international market because the Chinese market was too small for our type of business. I believe that in B2B, you have to go international from the very beginning to find customers.

I don’t know if China was the best place for starting, but it offered an interesting combination of the ability to recruit the right people and not too expensive for starting operations, especially compared to countries like France. Surprisingly, China has relatively easy legislation. So I think it has a lot of benefits. Beijing manages to keep attracting a lot of international people, and at least in Beijing and Shanghai, it’s not just local people. For an international business, that’s important. So this part was good for us, in terms of attracting talented international people.

If I go back to the fact that China was such a small market initially, it avoided the mistake of many French companies, where the market is not so small and you aren’t forced to expand out of the French market so quickly. Then you never leave, the best you do is Luxembourg and Belgium, and this is of course not enough. If you focus on your costs and just stay in the French speaking market, it will be way too small. I think that it is a trap. France is not so small so it doesn’t push you out too quickly. It’s big enough that you can feel comfortable at least initially. Then you constrain yourself, there are lost opportunities. So I think it’s something to be very careful of. There is not so much B2B internet or software business in France these days. Companies don’t understand technology fast enough. I’ve seen questions from companies in France that we didn’t get from any of our big Japanese and American customers. So I think starting a business is tough in France. You need buyers, and when you get a customer it’s smaller than you can get in the US or Japan.

A lot of companies have trouble going into China when they have conquered the world.

Bertrand: For me, in terms of choice of where to start I preferred China because you can have a market in China at some point. Initially, you might not have some big business but eventually it will be there. And if you are pretty local, it will help you. You understand more of the market. Whereas most companies, they don’t know China, they don’t understand China. They might have just a few people there.

But at the same time, we are a B2B business and luckily for us China regulations are very focused on the business-to-consumer (B2C) side where you have to be more careful. But being a B2B business, the way people work in China, Russia, Europe, Japan, America, it is not so different business-wise. The people I talk to, there are local differences, no question, but it is not so big as if you focus on the consumer market. The consumer market, is very, very different, country by country.

Which countries are for you the most proper to develop a business leveraging a pool of developers?

Bertrand: The United States and China. Japan is pretty good as well. They have a few local giants. You have quite a few companies that have managed to be big in Japan, but in a smaller way than the US. Facebook is becoming more and more popular there. In a way, in China, there is competition, because they are training their workforce well, China is working on this stuff, and is protected from American competition to some extent. Whereas if you are a French guy staying in France, where are you working on big internet projects? I’m talking about something where you have more than 5,000 people.

So the United States is the biggest software industry in the world?

Bertrand: No question, but I think China might be number two now. When I say software, it’s more Internet services, where I think the experience of building scalable platforms that go on the technical side is pretty unique. Ventes Privees might be one of the few really good local success stories. That’s one of the reasons I left France, because every time you go on scale in France and go on scale in Europe, your American competitors will already have dominated the US market faster than you have. They have less costs, more revenues, because it is much easier to scale in the US.

Martin Hartono (pictured), son of one of the richest men in Indonesia – Robert Budi Hartono, who owns Djarum and Bank Central Asia – is making big bets on Indonesia’s internet industry.

Under Global Digital Prima Venture (GDP Venture), Martin has so far invested in companies such as Kaskus, the largest forum site in Indonesia, and Blibli, a fast growing e-commerce site. Under GDP Ventures is Merah Putih, Indonesia’s first tech and digital incubator, which has invested in Lintas.me, Infokost.net, Bolalob, Mindtalk, DailySocial.net, Kincir, and the latest venture it has invested is Opini.co.id.

Martin’s love of technology started with games. He smilingly describes himself as a gamer since he was born, playing anything from Nintendo to PC games. Prior to investing and mentoring internet startups, Martin started his career by working at Djarum’s business technology department as its business technology director. The experience helped him to understand the fundamentals of the internet businesses like programing and online marketing.

Contrary to what many people would think, Martin appears extremely humble and friendly. Despite being in a wealthy family, he credits his parents for having brought him up well; his education was structured to avoid thoughts of self-entitlement. “My family came from humble beginnings too. So we understand,” he said.

Why GDP Venture?

GDP Venture takes that love of tech and focuses it on investing in Indonesia. Martin explains that Indonesia is a huge market with a lot of consumers and a lot of them are still young. He explained further:

It’s not too late [to enter the market] because the internet population is just 30 percent. There will be a huge shift in demographics within five years when young people move to the workforce. [And so the nation’s] GDP – that is why we sort of named our company GDP – will grow. This isn’t only about venture capital but it is about growing the Indonesian economy. If you look at offline companies, we actually have a lot of world-class brands competing with international brands. Why can’t we have international technology companies in Indonesia?

Martin’s observation is supported by a recent BCG report which estimated there will be 141 million middle-class and affluent consumers (MACs) in Indonesia by 2020. And by 2020, the report states that “the island of Java alone will have more MACs than the entire population of Thailand, and Sumatra will have more than the populations of Malaysia and Singapore combined.”

Weighing up startups

When picking companies, Martin looks at the concept and prefers to invest in a company with a great cause that is relevant to Indonesia. He said Infokost, a startup that helps people search for apartments for rent, is a good fit because ‘kost’ (like dormitories in the US) are a part of Indonesian’s daily lives. Besides concept, Martin also prefers a startup team who can execute the concept well. “A good concept run by a team who cannot execute will not turn out well.” He added saying:

GDP Ventures’ purpose is to create a healthy ecosystem that produces great companies. In the end we want Indonesia to have great technopreneurs, engineers, product guys, and marketers. I think the angel network is as important as technopreneurs themselves. We need a lot of different investors because no single institute can invest in all.

For Indonesia, Martin believes the technopreneurs need to take more interest in back-end systems and not only front-end development. “Indonesia has potentially hundreds of millions of users. But I don’t see many people having that kind of expertise to handle thousands of concurrent users,” he said.

Besides running GDP Venture, Martin spends time mentoring at Founders Institute Jakarta and believes that Indonesia needs more of such programs to breed the country’s future leaders and entrepreneurs.

This picture was taken on William (left) and Leon’s (right) first year building Tokopedia.com

Tokopedia has grown over the years to become one of the favorite C2C marketplace destinations for Indonesians to buy and sell.

Founded in 2009 by William Tanuwijaya and Leontinus Alpha Edison, the company is one of the top 50 most visited sites in Indonesia according to Alexa and claims to be the number one online marketplace site in Indonesia. It has over 770,000 active listings and its gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2012 grew by 686 percent compared to the year before. Tokopedia also claims to have at least 53 percent repeat buyers each month.

Some might see Tokopedia as the eBay of Indonesia but co-founder William would like to think that Tokopedia is more like China’s Taobao. William looks up to Taobao’s creator, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, as a role model, often researching into Taobao history and Ma’s speeches for inspiration. In many ways, Tokopedia and William do resemble Taobao and Ma. For example, Tokopedia insists in not charging merchants for utilizing its marketplace which is what Taobao did in its early days – that’s one key way that Taobao beat eBay in China. William told me more:

We learned from Jack Ma that small is beautiful and we also believe in the power of individuals and small medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia. We learned that Taobao really focuses on solving problems – which are trust and efficiency in the Chinese market.

When we started our company, the e-commerce ecosystem was non-existent [in Indonesia], and we thought if no one starts to build a proper e-commerce ecosystem, then it will never improve.

Jack Ma isn’t William’s only idol. “When we started our company, we admire the Google founders so much,” he said. William insists that Tokopedia isn’t only an e-commerce company but it is more of an internet company which wants to make an impact and change people’s lives. Both Google and Alibaba, he says, have such vision. It turns out to be Tokopedia’s vision too but on a more local level. “Our company vision is to better shape Indonesia through the internet,” he told me.

Facing the big boys

Tokopedia’s journey hasn’t been easy as it faces multiple giants along its way. In its first year, Tokopedia faced Telkom-eBay’s Plasa.com which looks to be hanging on by a thread. In the second year, it faced Rakuten Belanja Online, a joint venture online marketplace between Rakuten and MNC which looks to be doing well. In Tokopedia’s third year, Multiply came onto the scene, transforming itself from a social/blogging platform into an online marketplace which we now know is sadly in the deadpool.

“With very limited resources, we have no choice other than work harder than everyone else to survive the competition,” said William. Of course, there are other giant competitors like Facebook with the ‘f-commerce’ phenomenon, discussion forum site Kaskus where a lot of C2C selling happens, and online classifieds site Tokobagus where consumers can also buy goods online. But William argues that forums and classifieds sites works perfectly if people only plan to sell just one item like renting out an apartment, or selling one old motorbike or some used mobile phones – but that’s not the right kind of platform for small businesses.

On Tokopedia, William explains that merchants that come on board usually have many different models and units. He highlights several pain points as to why social networks, forums, and classifieds sites aren’t suitable for serious online merchants to do business. For example, most forums and classified sites do not have a shopping cart, inventory management system, and payment processing services. For logistics, Tokopedia helps buyers to track the products by partnering with several shipping partners. William shared more:

In many ways, the Taobao model works very well in Indonesia. Taobao has the escrow function. If you don’t receive the product, Taobao will not release the payment. Tokopedia works the same.

Tokopedia has proven to work well for some of its merchants. In the process of building Tokopedia, William has witnessed several of its merchants, some of whom are housewives, generating over billions of rupiah (more than $100,000) in sales each month. “The beauty of an entrepreneur is that we can help people. As an internet company we want to build a platform to help others do e-commerce,” he said.

Despite speaking highly of Jack Ma and Taobao, William does not plan to give face if the Chinese e-commerce giant decides to enter Indonesia. If that happens, William says confidently that Alibaba will be the shark in the ocean while Tokopedia will be the crocodile in the river.

Relocating from one country to another is never an easy task. For some, the decision would probably mean sacrificing friendships, family, and other things you enjoy in your pursuits.

Adriana Gascoigne, the CEO and founder of both Girls in TechandHelpLearn.Asia, initially moved from the United States to Singapore for personal reasons. When things fell through, she quickly picked up the pieces, and secured a position in startup within a couple of months. After eight months in sunny Singapore, she decided to embark on her own venture, HelpLearn.Asia, while continuing the expansion efforts of Girls in Tech throughout Southeast Asia. She is also currently working on a social enterprise, which will also be revealed in the upcoming months.

Prior to starting up, Adriana had a taste of both corporate and startup life. She was the vice president of marketing at SecondMarket, where she was responsible for marketing, branding strategy, event production, and digital media efforts. Adriana has also worked at various technology startups, such as ImpulseFlyer, hi5, SocialGamingNetwork (SGN), Jambool’s SocialGold, and GUBA, where she spearheaded marketing, communications, and analytics. Her background as the vice president of 360 Digital Influence at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and vice president of the digital group at Edelman has also reinforced her experience, which proved essential in the setup of HelpLearn.Asia, an e-learning platform providing tutorials on online and digital marketing tools.

With regard to the Girls in Tech Singapore chapter, that initiative grew to over 600 members in just a couple of months. Managing a non-profit organization virtually poses two challenges: How does Adriana(pictured right) motivate the managing directors of each chapter? And how does she manage to grow her member base so quickly?

In the video interview above, Adriana tells us that she leads by example. Regardless of the circumstances or challenges posed to her, she continues to work hard and is dedicated to build her passion around technology startups. She hopes to empower, engage, and educate women in technology, and is driven to make Girls in Tech succeed.

Was the move to Singapore worth it? Does Adriana miss her family and her friends?

She admits, yes, but communication tools like Skype have helped her to stay connected to her loved ones back home. In Adriana’s words:

It is a sacrifice but also an opportunity. I’m learning a lot about doing business in another part of the world, [where] the economy is thriving and people are eager to learn from those of us who have lived in Silicon Valley for many years. I most likely won’t be here forever, but for the time being – I’m living everyday as if it was my last – enjoying what I do, the people who I surround myself with, and focusing on the things that make me smile.

What’s her advice to fellow female entrepreneurs? Take risks.

If you would like to find out more about her entrepreneurial journey, challenges faced, and how she overcame them, check out the video above.

Blackberry JamHack Asia just finished a few days ago, with Indonesian web and app developers Inspira Solusi Indonesia emerging as the grand champion with its Soccer Ticker app (pictured below). The team came out among ten Asian city winners that competed at the event. We spoke more with the co-founder of Inspira Solusi Indonesia, Vincent Putera, about his recent success, and it turns out that Inspira’s portfolio looks pretty impressive, and its future looks bright.

Inspira Solusi Indonesia was founded late last year by Vincent, Hendry Gunawan, and Abrizal Ang. In addition to building their own web and app startups, Inspira is also available to develop apps for clients. Interestingly, the three co-founders are all returnees to Indonesia, having spent time in the US previously. Vincent himself spent eight years there finishing his undergraduate and MBA degrees, and then worked for a publishing house. He said that one of the reasons he came back to Indonesia was to take part in the immense potential of digital ventures in the country.

1. Why did you guys decide to build a soccer scores app?

Vincent: We built Soccer Ticker because we haven’t seen anything similar on the market. I’m a football fan and it’s hard for me to find a mobile app that could really provide in-depth play-by-play live updates on a certain match.

We’re also integrating it with BBM to differentiate our product a bit further and also to replicate the excitement of enjoying football matches in a collective way. Think NoBar (means “watching something together”), or going to see a match with your buddies.

2. What was the secret to winning the JamHack Asia?

Vincent: I think I was somewhat optimistic that we had a good shot at winning it. We had a good idea and it was well executed. It just felt like it hit all the right notes. Plus the marketability and audience for this service is quite huge, so we thought why not give it a shot.

I supposed you could say for now that the integrated chatting platform is the secret sauce. It is certainly one thing that would make the app stickier. We have a few more tricks, but we’ll keep them under wraps for now.

The key factor was definitely the team behind it. We had the right idea, but as always, an idea alone won’t take you far. We worked hard to flesh out the idea using Cascades.

3. What is the revenue model for Soccer Ticker? Is the app available now?

Vincent: It is not available right now, but it will be featured in Blackberry 10 when it comes out. […] You could go to www.soccerticker.net and leave your email there for scheduled beta access. The revenue model is going to be ad-based and freemium.

4. What do you think about Blackberry’s future in Indonesia? And about its latest Blackberry 10 OS?

Vincent: Indonesia will still be a BlackBerry nation for another year at least, especially with the more affordable variants of Blackberry coming out. RIM’s future is fine in Indonesia. It’s the western hemisphere that they need to worry about.

BB OS 10 is actually decent and puts RIM in the same playing field as Google and Apple. I just hope it’s not too little too late.

5. What are your upcoming plans?

Vincent: Yes, Blackberry 10 isn’t coming out until next year, so meanwhile we’re going to do iOS and Android versions, and make sure they’re out the door in very near future. Time is of the essence. At the same time, we owe it to Blackberry JamHack for discovering Soccer Ticker, so we going to include some features that are exclusive to Blackberry 10 when it comes out. Just minor stuff, but it’s just our way of saying thanks.

I’d like to credit my team who pulled off Soccer Ticker at BBJamAsia. We’re not bunch of Steve Jobses, but we’re bunch of committed individuals. You know how there’s a saying that “If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well,” and I really believe the team has that attitude in them. They are people that wanted to run marathons, cage fight, and hunt alligators, but were born with asthma. They’re the people with that startup attitude.

6. Are you looking for Investment?

Vincent: Yes, we’re looking for investment to help us grow and scale Soccer Ticker in a timely manner.

Soccer Ticker Preview

Below is the video of how the Soccer Ticker app works. Though the explanation is on semi Indonesian-English language, this video can still give you a glimpse of what you can expect when the app is launched on other OSes.

Keeping Busy

Besides building apps, Inspira is also running two startups, they are Indonesian gadget community Gadgetan.com and Daily Deals site HelloGoodBuy.me. The latter startup got nominated for Open Web Asia, and it was featured in Echelon 2012 as one of the 50 most promising startups in Asia. Vincent said that it is scheduled to undergo a major pivot. He adds:

We’re currently operating it as a daily deals site just to get our feet wet. It was never meant to be a daily deals site.

Since launching almost 4 years years ago, HootSuite’s goal was to make our social media management system available to as many people as possible.

With this in mind, we monitor conversations about HootSuite and reach out to markets in which we see rapid organic growth. Afterwards we work to localize these unique markets. We started with Japan, then Spanish speaking countries, around Europe and then onwards into other Asian markets like Indonesia.

We knew the Chinese market was important but wanted to make sure we avoided missteps that we observed from other companies. We also knew that HootSuite is blocked by association in China because our core product includes access to Twitter and Facebook.

HootSuite is very cognizant that Chinese social media users have different networks, different needs, habits and culture along with different language. In addition we know there is more than one Chinese market with different expectations around China’s provinces including communities in Hong Kong, Taiwan/Taipei, Singapore and the huge ex-pat community such as in our home city of Vancouver.

We also learned that despite the difference, people using Chinese social networks share some of the same needs as users in the West, which are: sharing content across networks, managing multiple online profiles, and help listening, responding to, and analyzing their online interactions.

We’ve learned a lot from localizing elsewhere, and are hoping to use these lessons in bringing HootSuite to Chinese users. We want to tread lightly, and listen attentively.

As such, we are taking a diplomatic and educational approach to build community, share knowledge and deliver on expectations. Eventually we can build a business case as well.

What are you doing to get into the China market already?

Along with adding Sina Weibo support, we translated HootSuite’s web and mobile social media dashboard into Traditional Chinese and released it on October 8th in order to start the conversation with social media enthusiasts in Hong Kong, Taiwan/Taipei, etc.

However, before starting the translation project, we held a Chinese Localization Symposium in which we invited a cross section of Chinese social media users to discuss the linguistic, cultural and logistical challenges. The event was a success and we followed it up with a fun translathon with Chinese themed decorations, music, food, tea and more!

Now, with the Traditional Chinese version launched, we’re underway with working on the Simplified Chinese version. We’ve also started developing a Chinese specific branding as well, to share our name and culture in Chinese characters.

We aim to keep things pretty grassroots, talking with people through our @HootSuite_CN and Sina Weibo accounts to see what is working, what isn’t, and what they want to see in the future.

Building relationships with users is our biggest priority.

What comes next and what are your long term plans?

Next up is getting our Simplified Chinese translation released by the end of the year. We will also increase Sina Weibo integration features, and are exploring integrations with other Chinese social networks like Renren and other Tencent properties. A lot of our next steps will be based on what we hear from conversations with our Chinese users.

We also hope to find quality social media industry events for our CEO Ryan Holmes to speak at and share our culture and story.

Long term plans are based on the feedback and reaction from these initial steps. Obviously, there are challenges facing foreign companies wanting to operate in Mainland China – especially technology companies like HootSuite – so we’ll stay focused on finding ways to get HootSuite in the hands of as many users as possible, perhaps with a China-specific version.

What are you finding the differences are between your Chinese and international users? Between weibo and twitter users?

First off, Chinese users can say a lot more in 140 characters!

Social media has broad appeal, regardless of which network you are using. The desire to connect with people, to broadcast, listen, and share, spans cultures.

Social media usage patterns and attitudes for Chinese specifically – and international in general – is a topic we spend lots of time researching. Getting a finger on the pulse of those differences is something we hope conversations with our users will produce.

For example: Weibo has a focus on media-rich content like photos and videos, as well as things like emoji. Comments and ‘likes’ on posts also helps keep the conversation going.

Overall, feature differences between networks reflect and/or inform usage patterns, so there are definitely some differences between Sina Weibo and Twitter users. We’ve embraced the differences in Twitter usage between North America and countries like Japan and Indonesia, so we’ll continue listening to the Chinese users for guidance.

Mr. Olson also shared some cool extras with us, like this Chinese pronunciation guide an enthusiastic employee made and an introduction video in Chinese (embedded below). I’m sure not everyone at the company is learning Chinese, but this is still a nice, friendly touch that shows the folks at HootSuite are really working to communicate with Chinese users on their terms. Here’s hoping that HootSuite can move even further into the Chinese market (and that that pronunciation video will stop people from pronouncing weibo like “way-bow”)!

French-born and self-confessed “Gadgetologist,” Olivier Carnohan is currently the CEO of InnoVentures, which is a collaborated venture with the Singaporean telco Singtel. Innoventures aims to invest and work together with telecom companies to create larger stake of active mobile internet users in the market.

Olivier discusses his experiences with entrepreneurship and his lessons learned working in the USA, Europe, and Asia in an ever-changing industry. As a former product manager, entrepreneur, and consultant in the telecoms industry for over 15 years, he shares experiences that may help some of you who wish to embark on an entrepreneurial journey.

So what brought you to Asia?

By 2001 I was eager to embark on new challenges both personally and professionally. I also realized that most of my work experience and contacts were based on the east coast of the US. The internet industry had been financing its unsustainable growth on the back of irrational and overly exuberant investors. I decided to take a year off. A new beginning, a new chapter in my life, needed to be written before I settle down.

I applied and got accepted into the INSEAD MBA. I only applied to the Singapore campus. Frankly I was fed up with the Boston winters. That year changed everything. I fell in love with Singapore right away. I also fell in love with my neighbor, whom I married in 2004. I am French, you see!

You’ve been in the Telecoms-Internet industry all your career. Why that sector?

Close your eyes and remember a time when you took a life-changing decision. Remember the jubilation, the impatience, the confidence? I mean it, close your eyes. Done? Now you know the feelings I experienced in 1993 after I discovered the internet via a 14Kbps modem attached to my Intel 486DX. I finished my associate degree in law, packed-up my apartment and moved to Boston.

In 2000, I decided to accept an unsolicited offer to work at Genuity, a $1 billion global provider of internet and web hosting, later bought by Level III, which hired me to act as a product manager for the flagship web-hosting product, Black Rocket. I was living in Boston, working on the Route 128 Tech corridor, driving a fast German car and with my pockets full of a pre-IPO stock options, worthless now… Every door at the office had a sticker on it saying “Push to change the world!” Working during the internet bubble was a great feeling that comes probably only once in a lifetime.

Do you have any tips for readers who might not be so sure of their career path?

Simple. First, let’s agree on one simple concept: People only do well that which they enjoy doing. If you concur, then you should agree with me to only work on topics you enjoy enough to do on weekends.

My hobby is to tinker with gadgets and technology. I call it “Gadgetology.” When I’m at the beach, while I’m relaxing I read technology blogs. If your passion is in sport, then do work for Nike or Equinox.

Second, travel, live, work or study on at least three continents, especially in your 20s. I left France more than 16 years ago. When people ask me what I have learned while away for so long, I answer that I learned more about myself than I ever thought I could. Experiencing different cultures has taught me what really mattered to me, what were the traits of character I agreed to alter to blend with the new culture and what were the defining attributes I was not ready to change under any circumstances. I also learned a great deal about flexibility. I regard my adaptable character as one of my greatest assets to succeed in my career and private life. Finally, when you live far from your loved ones, there’s a lot of emotional cost so you will make sure that every day away from your family counts.

Is entrepreneurship in your family?

I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My ancestors and every single one of my family members has had their own company, which in France in quite rare.

But I don’t think that you can call me a natural born entrepreneur. Because I’ve seen, growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, the hardships and pain caused by entrepreneurships. Every one of my family, except my uncle, failed, and started again. I decided to play safe, to pursue education and to follow the corporate route. I’m too risk-averse to be an entrepreneur, but I’m too independent to be a corporate guy. That’s why “intrapreneurship” suits me very well, I can focus on creating value, backed by solid partners.

Did you eventually start a company?

Of course! It runs in the family. I started Tucker and VoIPLCR in London.

Tucker’s business model remains to this day a good idea. The aim of the business was to conduct telecommunications audits focusing on contractual compliance, voice and data network optimization, and use of emerging technologies. We got compensated on a third of the first year net savings. We signed-up our first client before Tucker was even incorporated and soon we had signed-up over twelve clients saving them on average 43% of their cost of calls.

With VoIPLCR, we attempted to evolve the business model to Voice Over IP minutes trading, trading voice calls over the exchanges, which proved to be a very time consuming endeavor, and not generating enough profits to be economically viable. I don’t know if your readers know this but there is a stock-exchange for voice minutes, where millions of minutes are bought and sold everyday.

What happened then?

Entrepreneurship is a risky activity and I was ill prepared for it. I learned a lot from this venture, especially about the relevance of Murphy’s Law as a “predictive science.”

Had we started the company a year earlier, and not in one of the most expensive cities in the world, I reckon that we could have survived the six months it took on average to generate revenues out of clients.

The lessons I learned are to raise enough capital to face delays in shipping your product and reaching critical mass, then manage your cash-flow like a hawk. Most importantly, don’t do it alone. Surround yourself with the brightest and the most experienced [people] your money or your motivational skills can afford.

My wife and I decided to move to Australia, where I joined Accenture as an experienced hire. I had to adapt my style to the rigor of a consultancy but I was practicing in a field that I really liked. I moved to the Singapore office after two years in Sydney.

After 3.5 years at a Singapore telecom Singtel, where I built a small team of passionate eBusiness practioners, I co-founded !nnoVentures, which is a collaborated venture with SingTel. We look for companies that need help building large active mobile internet users in Southeast Asia. We will provide capital, expertise, our combined assets but stay respectfully distant enough to let the entrepreneurs innovate and the customers choose the winners.

I heard you love a certain beach here in Indonesia. Can you share a bit about that?

The most meaningful place on earth for my wife and I is here in Indonesia. The Mana Mana beach in Bintan is only 45 minutes away from Singapore. I can count so many fond memories on this beach. I proposed to my wife during a sunset on this beach, we got married on this beach, we learned we were going to be parents on this beach and I learned I was going to become the CEO of InnoVentures, on the same beach.

We selected the name of our boy on this beach before he was born, and three weeks ago we went back to select a name for our daughter who was born on August 2nd.

In the West, online travel has long since eclipsed the brick-and-mortar industry, but in China, real-world travel agencies are very much alive. Travel patterns are also very different here; Chinese tourists often prefer to travel in groups as part of meticulously crafted travel packages, not just hop a flight to a vacation destination and figure the rest out later. That means operating a travel site in China presents some unique challenges, and recently, we got an opportunity to talk via email with Donald Yu, the CEO of Tuniu, about some of them.

Tuniu’s development has been surprisingly rapid. How was this accomplished? Can you tell us a little about the founding and development of Tuniu?

We started Tuniu as a community tourism website in October of 2006 and sped its pace of development as an online travel package and group tour booking around six months later. Our vision was to make tourism simple for the still-nascent Chinese travel market. To make this goal a reality, we targeted customer service and experience as our key differentiators from other market players.

Back then, there were three major trends in China’s online tourism industry: do it yourself tours and outdoor activities; air tickets and hotel booking; and tourism package products with cooperation from tourism agencies. Tuniu targeted the third category because we felt it was an underexploited market with great potential.
In order to ensure that customers had a wide range of choices for the types of travel packages and group tours that they really wanted, we built out a business operation supporting system, which we call “BOSS,” built upon sophisticated technology. We use this system to identify trends in the market quickly and leverage our trained travel experts to tailor tours that Chinese consumers will appreciate.

We were fortunate that we got into the Chinese travel market just as it was beginning to take off. The last five to six years have seen remarkable growth in the Chinese tourism industry, and we’ve been excellently positioned to capitalize on that trend.

In the West, traditional brick-and-mortar travel agencies have been almost completely eliminated by online travel sites, but China’s market is different. Do you think online travel sites in China will be able to eliminate traditional brick-and-mortar establishments?

From its start, Tuniu has been focused on leveraging our excellent technology to meet trends and needs in the market in a way that traditional travel companies cannot. Our goal has always been making tourism simple for our customers, which we believe will ensure our leading position in the market.

I don’t think that traditional travel agencies are leaving the market anytime soon, but I also don’t think that they are incompatible with online travel companies. Many traditional travel agencies have expanded into the online realm. However, fundamentally, we provide a different offering than they do. We can arrange one stop travel solutions that are easy to book. And our BOSS system lets us give travelers the kind of package travel and group tour options that they want without requiring them to spend months planning.

So what is so different about Tuniu, as compared to traditional travel agencies or other online services (like Qunar)?

We are focused on tourism solutions and are dedicated to providing a broad range of travel options, while continuing to improve service quality. Our focus on packaged tourism means we don’t sell separate air tickets or hotel bookings. Simply put we don’t focus on travel, but rather tourism. We provide our customers with full package solutions. Everything needs to be simple and intuitive.

Our BOSS system also allows us to track the progress and satisfaction of our customers very well in the pre-sale and post-trip timeframe, as well as during travel. If there is a problem, we’ll know almost immediately.

BOSS further provides us database analysis, which gives us insights into the ever changing tourism market and enables us to react quickly and effectively. We understand what Chinese customers are buying and adjust our offerings quickly to meet the demands. As a result, our products are richer than peers who are less focused on staying ahead of Chinese tourism trends.

E-commerce in China has had trouble dealing with customer complaints, and travel is an industry in which the customer demands are high because normal service can be disrupted by all kinds of things (for example, weather delaying flights or regional instability making travel to a particular place suddenly unwise). How does Tuniu deal with this problem, and how are you handling customer service as your site and the number of trips offered continues to grow?

Since its founding, Tuniu has continuously worked to improve customer experience and control risks. We have dedicated teams dedicated to working on these issues, and we continue to build them out as the volume of our business increases.

In the beginning, we relied on customer surveys to get a sense of how well we were performing, but have made significant upgrades in our sophistication since then. Initially, we worked to set up an after-sale team to handle complaints, refund inquires and help retrieve lost items.

Later, when our business grew further, we set up a dedicated in-sales team to respond and follow up on customer inquiries as quickly as possible. We appreciate that when there’s a problem during travel, you want the situation resolved immediately. That’s why we’ve invested in putting local quality supervisors on the ground in some of the most popular Chinese tourist destinations like Xiamen and Sanya. We want to make sure that if our customers have a problem there’s someone on the ground who knows the market and can help resolve the situation immediately.

At present you only operate and send tours from within China; are there any plans to expand your market and begin operations elsewhere (for example, Southeast Asia)?

We are highly focused on the Chinese market and we believe that we are only just beginning to reach our full potential audience. The exciting part about China is that travel is still relatively new for so many people. We believe that we have a key role and responsibility in broadening what Chinese travelers do and what experiences they are able to enjoy. So far, we have over 20 departing cities for tourism products, which positions us at the forefront of the market.

If I’m a person who wants to travel, why should I choose Tuniu?

Tuniu is the best option for our target customers: those looking for simple solutions to great tour experiences. This means we cater to the needs of all types of customers, including those who have limited travel experience – a rapidly growing demographic among Chinese travellers. For each of these kinds of trips our team works to develop the richest possible travel experience.

For the group tour and package travel segment of the market, we are confident that we are leaders in the breadth and depth of our offering. Our teams of experts design packages to meet all sectors of the Chinese—from outdoor domestic adventures in areas like Yunnan, to trips to Europe, Japan and Korean. Each of the packages that we offer is carefully tailored to offer a different experience so that our customers have a wide range of off-the-shelf options. And even with all of the time and energy we put into getting these packages to meet our customers’ varied needs, we are still extremely competitive in our pricing.

The entire customer experience, from purchasing to after sales is designed to be easy, and customers can count on us to be there and help out when problem occurs. Based on the positive feedback and repeat customers we have from among the more than one million travel experiences we’ve serviced, we believe that we are succeeding in creating simple but rich tour solutions.

What are the biggest problems facing Tuniu right now? What challenges will you face in the future?

Companies that experience the kind of explosive growth we’ve seen inevitably have a learning curve, and we’re no different. What I’m most proud of is that throughout the company we’ve shown a commitment to continuously investing our resources in technology and our people with the consistent goal of making tourism simple. Tuniu has made tremendous improvements over the last several years, but I think our strength is that we always keep the big picture focus on the customer, and will continue to invest in product development and internal team management.

Moving forward, we will continue to focus on providing tourism solutions, increasing efficiency while improving quality of service.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/online-travel-grows-china-interview-tuniu-ceo-donald-yu/feed/0Eedoo Speaks Out About CT510: Don’t Call it a Game Console [EXCLUSIVE]https://www.techinasia.com/eedoo-speaks-ct510-call-game-console-exclusive/
https://www.techinasia.com/eedoo-speaks-ct510-call-game-console-exclusive/#commentsThu, 03 May 2012 05:00:39 +0000https://www.techinasia.com/?p=77002

It's time to eedoo.

A day before I wrote this piece about the launch of the CT510 and how the console is nowhere to be found in Beijing, I sent an email to the folks at eedoo, the company that makes the device. Yesterday, eedoo’s Victor Wang finally got back to me, and the answers to my questions do clear up a few things about the CT510, although they also raise some new questions. What follows are his answers translated verbatim from the Chinese, and unedited.

We were calling the iSec a ‘motion-sensing entertainment device,’ but in the development process we discovered that the scale and number of games required for an entertainment device is very high, and [games’] demands on the [operating] system are also very high. We currently don’t have the ability to develop and release an entertainment device that would satisfy gamers and the public. In exploiting platform technology we already have to release an ‘eedoo online multimedia motion-sensing device,’ we’re emphasizing the motion-sensing and internet apps, and weakening its appeal as a games/entertainment device. This is in accordance with our Chinese family demographic: women, and middle aged people. For the time being, we won’t try to cater to core gamers.

The ‘eedoo online multimedia motion-sensing device‘ is being called the ‘eedoo motion‘ for short. The English name for this is a OMMS (Online Multi-Media Set-of-box) [sic] and the product model is the CT510. We will continue to research the needs of core gamers, acquire technology, and release the iSec at an appropriate time.

The market and gamers have been following the launch very closely. We have our first ‘experience store’ in Beijing’s Shiji Jinyuan, and the atmosphere is very good, with consumers experiencing and buying the device.

The reaction of retailers has also been very lively, there are over 200 distributors nationwide who are currently involved in discussions with us.

The ‘eedoo motion’ has never been officially on sale before now, and the official price of the device now is 3799 RMB (~$600), therefore, there has been no so-called price increase.

Are you not concerned the price is too high? For $600 consumers could buy two Xboxes with Kinect…

We know that many gamers will compare international products at their gray market prices [with our device], and we understand this.

Gray market products are not officially on the market, they are not taxed, the games and content are pirated, there is no after-sales service, etc. We can’t compare prices with the gray market; there’s no way to compete.

But if we compare with international products using Amazon.com prices, we can see an Xbox with Kinect and one or two bundled games sells for $400 [Note: it appear’s he’s referring to the 250 GB Xbox 360 Kinect Value Bundle, which comes with two bundled games]. Because of differences in the [game] distribution model, Xbox games are distributed on CDs, and Kinect games go for about $30, so six additional games would cost $180. In total, that’s close to $600, so the prices are the same. Eedoo’s target demographic is middle and upper-class families in China, and the device includes eight bundled games and ten pre-installed online apps. The games have content covering martial arts, dance, exercise, sports, relaxation, and other motion games. The online services include streaming video, online karaoke, Disney English, and interactive educational stuff for kids. In the future we will also have an app store to download updates and additional content. Plus there’s the Fanhome OS, a dual-core processor, 250 GB of HDD space, wifi, and after sales service to guarantee the reliability of the product. The ‘eedoo motion’ is a special domestic product created independently, the first in the Chinese market, with a strong ability to compete.

Of course, there will be a process required for many consumers to recognize a product like this, so we will continue and strengthen our brand promotion and sales, and expanding into new channels, for example video ads, online community plans, family sporting competitions, etc., to let more consumers know about the product and understand the value of eedoo. We believe that Chinese family consumers will quickly achieve health and happiness thanks to the ‘eedoo motion.’

So, there you have it. The iSec isn’t dead, just resting, and the CT510 isn’t a game console, it just happens to come bundled with eight games. While I have some, ahem, disagreements with some of what the folks at eedoo have said here, it’s nothing I haven’t stated before. Now that they’ve finally given me an address where I can play the thing, though, I’ll be getting out there at the first opportunity to put the CT510 through its paces firsthand and see if it lives up to eedoo’s hype, lives down to my extreme skepticism, or falls somewhere in the middle. I’m looking forward to it.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/eedoo-speaks-ct510-call-game-console-exclusive/feed/0Eedoo Speaks Out About CT510: Don't Call it a Game Console [EXCLUSIVE]https://www.techinasia.com/eedoo-speaks-ct510-call-game-console-exclusive-2/
https://www.techinasia.com/eedoo-speaks-ct510-call-game-console-exclusive-2/#commentsThu, 03 May 2012 05:00:39 +0000http://www.techinasia.com/?p=77002A day before I wrote this piece about the launch of the CT510 and how the console is nowhere to be found in Beijing, I sent an email to the folks at eedoo, the company that makes the device. Yesterday, eedoo’s Victor Wang finally got back to me, and the answers to my questions do clear up a few things about the CT510, although they also raise some new questions. What follows are his answers translated verbatim from the Chinese, and unedited.

We were calling the iSec a ‘motion-sensing entertainment device,’ but in the development process we discovered that the scale and number of games required for an entertainment device is very high, and [games’] demands on the [operating] system are also very high. We currently don’t have the ability to develop and release an entertainment device that would satisfy gamers and the public. In exploiting platform technology we already have to release an ‘eedoo online multimedia motion-sensing device,’ we’re emphasizing the motion-sensing and internet apps, and weakening its appeal as a games/entertainment device. This is in accordance with our Chinese family demographic: women, and middle aged people. For the time being, we won’t try to cater to core gamers.

The ‘eedoo online multimedia motion-sensing device‘ is being called the ‘eedoo motion‘ for short. The English name for this is a OMMS (Online Multi-Media Set-of-box) [sic] and the product model is the CT510. We will continue to research the needs of core gamers, acquire technology, and release the iSec at an appropriate time.

The market and gamers have been following the launch very closely. We have our first ‘experience store’ in Beijing’s Shiji Jinyuan, and the atmosphere is very good, with consumers experiencing and buying the device.

The reaction of retailers has also been very lively, there are over 200 distributors nationwide who are currently involved in discussions with us.

The ‘eedoo motion’ has never been officially on sale before now, and the official price of the device now is 3799 RMB (~$600), therefore, there has been no so-called price increase.

Are you not concerned the price is too high? For $600 consumers could buy two Xboxes with Kinect…

We know that many gamers will compare international products at their gray market prices [with our device], and we understand this.

Gray market products are not officially on the market, they are not taxed, the games and content are pirated, there is no after-sales service, etc. We can’t compare prices with the gray market; there’s no way to compete.

But if we compare with international products using Amazon.com prices, we can see an Xbox with Kinect and one or two bundled games sells for $400 [Note: it appear’s he’s referring to the 250 GB Xbox 360 Kinect Value Bundle, which comes with two bundled games]. Because of differences in the [game] distribution model, Xbox games are distributed on CDs, and Kinect games go for about $30, so six additional games would cost $180. In total, that’s close to $600, so the prices are the same. Eedoo’s target demographic is middle and upper-class families in China, and the device includes eight bundled games and ten pre-installed online apps. The games have content covering martial arts, dance, exercise, sports, relaxation, and other motion games. The online services include streaming video, online karaoke, Disney English, and interactive educational stuff for kids. In the future we will also have an app store to download updates and additional content. Plus there’s the Fanhome OS, a dual-core processor, 250 GB of HDD space, wifi, and after sales service to guarantee the reliability of the product. The ‘eedoo motion’ is a special domestic product created independently, the first in the Chinese market, with a strong ability to compete.

Of course, there will be a process required for many consumers to recognize a product like this, so we will continue and strengthen our brand promotion and sales, and expanding into new channels, for example video ads, online community plans, family sporting competitions, etc., to let more consumers know about the product and understand the value of eedoo. We believe that Chinese family consumers will quickly achieve health and happiness thanks to the ‘eedoo motion.’

So, there you have it. The iSec isn’t dead, just resting, and the CT510 isn’t a game console, it just happens to come bundled with eight games. While I have some, ahem, disagreements with some of what the folks at eedoo have said here, it’s nothing I haven’t stated before. Now that they’ve finally given me an address where I can play the thing, though, I’ll be getting out there at the first opportunity to put the CT510 through its paces firsthand and see if it lives up to eedoo’s hype, lives down to my extreme skepticism, or falls somewhere in the middle. I’m looking forward to it.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/eedoo-speaks-ct510-call-game-console-exclusive-2/feed/0CloudFactory, From the Heights of Nepal, Can Put 1 Million Cloud Workers Into Businesshttps://www.techinasia.com/cloudfactory-nepal/
https://www.techinasia.com/cloudfactory-nepal/#commentsThu, 22 Mar 2012 05:06:54 +0000https://www.techinasia.com/?p=73124

CloudFactory is a fascinating business and concept, not just because it’s based in the Himalayan nation of Nepal, but because it can put one million people in developing countries – including in Nepal itself – into work on the web.

Those folks get employment doing basic computer work from their own home, while the companies that make use of the CloudFactory service get that huge human workforce to do tasks online like flagging bad content, inputting data, transcribing audio, fixing OCR, tagging images, etc. Essentially, many kinds of digitization, categorization, moderation, or even translation.

Started up in 2008 by Mark Sears, who came to Nepal with his wife on a two week vacation that never quite ended, the business itself employs 40 staff, mostly software engineers, in its Kathmandu office. Its cloud workers are scattered across the globe – mostly in poorer nations where work can be hard to come by – and are more than just a database of names. Using the microloan model, CloudFactory aims to put its cloud labor force into work as independent businesspeople, helping them purchase the kind of low-end tablet or netbook that can get them started.

To learn more about the region and the business model, TiA chatted with Tom Puskarich, the VP of business development, and got some founder’s insights from Mark Sears (both pictured below) as well. First up, Tom fields the questions:

1. Startups often have a tough time finding talent for their own team. How is that situation in Kathmandu, or Nepal in general?

Tom: Kathmandu’s universities put out hundreds of computer engineers every year; and with the lack of work opportunities, these engineers are hungry and motivated, especially for a Silicon Valley-style startup right in their backyard. Add that to the social mission of being a part of not only trying to change their own country but using their skills to change how the world works and create millions of jobs for those in developing countries, and you’ve got a recipe some seriously motivated talent. We’re certainly not at a loss to find programmers with a passion for developing software for the developing world, in the developing world.

2. Your CloudFactory creates opportunities for a claimed million “cloud workers” to do things like digitization, moderation, translation, etc. How does the system work, and what’s the deal for all these workers?

Tom: We use several worker pools, some of which are in Nepal and others through partnerships such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The idea behind all of these systems is a massively distributed workforce who get the huge benefit of not only working from wherever they would like, but also whenever they would like. Our own workforce, that is starting in Nepal, has much more opportunity for growth, training, and feedback which will then give our clients higher quality results.

3. You have a business card scanning app called BizcardArmy which is a sort of showcase for the CloudFactory.

Tom: BizcardArmy is a great example of CloudFactory in a market flooded with automated business card scanning apps that don’t really work. The efficient and on-demand human workforce that CloudFactory provides is the perfect solution for both the business and the users who get a great solution for turning paper business cards into contacts on their phones. As I said, this is just an example of the power of CloudFactory, and these same principles can be applied to all kinds of ideas from savvy entrepreneurs.

4. What’s your personal startup/entrepreneur story?

Mark: My wife and I actually came to Nepal for a two-week vacation – and that kept getting extended. Three and a half years later we are still here and have teamed up with Tom and his wife to take CloudFactory to the next level. Initially we started as a Ruby on Rails outsourcing company and grew quickly as we hired smart young computer engineers and trained them up.

Then we wanted to give training and opportunities to other talented people in Nepal and other developing countries. At the same time we were getting requests from clients to hire people in Nepal to do lead generation, image and video tagging, and other non-programming work. The supply and demand were there, so we started work on an innovative platform to bridge the gap. Initially it was a side project where we reinvested profits and extra time from the outsourcing side of the business, but since January it is now 100 percent of our focus.

5. How’s the startup scene in Nepal?

Tom: To describe Nepal in a word would be “adventure” – which is also how you could describe the startup scene. Wherever it exists in the world. Startups are not for the faint of heart whether you’re an entrepreneur, an investor, or a geek looking to change the world. So, in one way, you could look at Nepal and find all the reasons doing a startup in a country like Nepal is difficult, but if you’re ready to generate your own electricity and pass a few cows on the way to work, you may just find all the hidden advantages that go along with creating a startup at the top of the world; not the least of which is an awesome and hungry workforce or the breath-taking mountain views from the office.

Payment, Payment, Payment. That seems to be the biggest problem needing to be solved in the Indonesian e-commerce ecosystem right now. Previously we have looked at efforts by Indomog, Inapay, and UNIK, plus there’s Kaskus with its Kaspay. Now we have GudangVoucher as well.

The company has been doing this kind of stuff for years; not to mention they are the only payment solution working with Facebook in Indonesia for its Facebook Credits, and one of the few merchants that is working with BCA, the country’s biggest private bank.

Rather like Indomog, GudangVoucher is focused on social and in-app payments, not the broader aspect of being a payment platform for general e-commerce sites.

To learn about the company’s inception and where it’s heading, we talked with Gede B. Mahartapa (pictured right), the founder and COO of GudangVoucher:

1. Can you tell us how it started?

We were established in 2003, at the time when the only game online publishers were PT. Boleh Net Indonesia and PT. Lyto Datarindo. So a lot of people consider us the pioneers in this payments area. With my knowledge and experience of online banking systems I could partner with the banks and roll out an online e-voucher distribution system.

2. How large is your team now? And have you received any outside investment?

We have 42 employees in total, across Jakarta, which is our marketing office, and Yogyakarta, our development office. We are running on our own capital.

3. Can you give me any recent statistics or milestones?

I don’t remember exactly how many merchants have formed partnerships with us since 2003, but I guess it is more than 300 companies. How many users? You can see live from our main website. We broadcast our registered users and concurrent connected users. Right now it’s 179,273, and adding around 500 new users daily.

4. You have mentioned that you are the sole partner in Indonesia for Facebook credits, can you tell us more?

If you want to purchase in-game currency in all games in Facebook, you will be given an option to pay using your GudangVoucher balance. If you can read Indonesian, please follow these instructions; Indonesian app developers can also benefit from this as they can monetize through Facebook credits.

5. One of your recent updates is an API for app devs…

This is an alternative for mobile app developers to monetize directly, instead of using many other common platforms that rely on credit card transactions.

6. What is your target this year?

We have been operating in Singapore and Australia for the last three years, we are now preparing to enter Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Hong Kong.

To see the GudangVoucher payment platform in action, check out this four-minute demo video that was made by the company: